From Formidable, to Fictional, to a Flicker: God’s Return after the Death of God

Abstract

This paper explores three responses to Nietzsche’s declaration of the Death of God, each presenting a distinct impasse, a dichotomy, and a wager. The first response is Nietzsche’s atheistic stance, the second is Don Cupitt’s non-realism, and the third is Richard Kearney’s anatheism. The paper posits that Kearney’s anatheism offers solace to modern believers by reclaiming spirituality in a post-secular context, presenting a conception of God after the Death of God, while taking Nietzsche’s proclamation seriously. The analysis reveals a shift in understanding God’s nature: from the formidable God of theodicy to a fictionalised, nuanced conception, and finally to a minimalist approach reimagining God as a ‘flicker’ of the transcendent. By expanding upon anatheism, the paper proposes an alternative, minimalist approach to the divine through the language of supervenience, suggesting that this apophatic approach has roots in a classical theological tradition.