History of God, chapter 11, Has God a future?

chapter 11; Has God a future?
The world we know is passing away
New world order seems no less freightening than the old
Maybe God really an idea of past
Atheism no longer reduced by a particular idea of God, but automatic response to life in secularised society.
Jean Paul Sartre, 1980, his atheism positive liberation
Ponty, 1961, Albert Camus, 1960, similar thoughts
Ayer, 1991, logical positivist, atheism is as unintelligible and meaningless as theism
In 1950s linguistic pholosophers criticized Logical positivism
Death of God theologians in 1960s
Thomas J Altizer, Paul van Buren, no longer possible to speak of God acting in the world
William Hamilton, against death of God, being Protestant in twentieth century
James H Cone, black theologian, critisized white people and their theology death of God
Richard Rubinstein, Jewish theologian, preferred god of Jewish mystics, Issac Luria's doctrine of tsimtsum
Hans Jonas, God shares the weakness of human beings
Louis Jacob, British theologian, better to return to the classic explanation that God is greater than human
Hans Kung, Christian theologian, agrees with Jacob
Karl Barth, 1968; swiss theologian, only valid source of God-knowledge was the bible
Paul Tilich, 1965, personal God a harmful idea
a tinkering God
'God' of a theism lost its symbolic force, instead seek the God
Claimed that there is no special religious experience, God is fundamental to all human experience
de Chardin, 1955, Jesuit, paleontologist, combined his belief in God with modern science
Evolution from matter to spirit to personality to God
Daniel Day Williams, 1960s, Process theology, God's unity with world
(not complete)

History of God, chapter 10, The Death of God?

A History of God: chapter 10, The death of God?
19th ce, Atheism was on agenda
People tried to save God by evolving new theologies
Revolt against cult of reason,
Poet need to transcend reason
Keats, 1821, creative imagination, imagination a sacred faculty
Wordsworth, 1850, mystical poet, Keats critical of him, a mystic, meddling intellect could destroy intuition
Insight began with subjective experience, this had to be wise and not uninformed
William Blake, 1827, mystics poet, songs of Innocence and Experience, Blake was using idea of original fall like Gnostics and kabbalist
Attempt to bring Romanticism into official Christianity
Schleiermacher, 1834, faith cannot be confined to propositions in creed, feeling not opposed to human reason
Reason and feeling both pointed themselves beyond to an indescribable reality
In his later years, realized that concept of god useless without imaginatevely transformed by feeling
West, both Catholics and protestants regarded him as being, an other reality in the world
Atheist philosophers opposed this god
Hegel, 1831, evolved a philosophy similar to Kabbalah, regarded Judaism as ignoble religion
idea of a spirit; spirit and humanity two halves of single truth
like faylasufs regarded reason and philosophy superior to religion
Schopenhauer, 1860, no god, only human's will-to-live
Kierkegaard, 1855, insisted old creeds and doctrines became idols
Feuerbach, 1872, argued God simply human projection
Comte, 1857, wanted to get rid of this deity
Marx, 1885, religion was the opium of poor to bear suffering, God irrelevant.
Literal understanding of god and scripture in Christianity was vulnerable to new scientific discoveries of the period
in Koran doctrine of creation is a parable
Significant number of religious doesn't consider Darwin's thoery was fatal to the idea of God
Nietzsche, in 1882, proclaimed God is dead
Birth of Superman to replace god, war againt Christian values
idea of eternal and divine World and the concept of rebirth
Christian God pitiable and a crime against life
Freud, 1939, a personal god is a exalted father figure, religion belonged to infancy in human race, it was essential to promote ethical values, need to transition that to science
Adler, 1937, psychoanalyst, belief in god was helpful for humanity
C.G.Jung, 1961, his God was similar to mystics God, psychological truth
Freud insisted not to abolish religion, but people must Outgrow God in their own good time
atheist shown signs of strain, Schopenhauer could not cope with human beings and became recluse, Nietzsche lonely man plagued by ill-health went mad eventually.
Hegel's and Nietzsche's theory used by Nazis
In twentieth ce West, literature world started to unbelieve and doubt in God - Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Dostoevsky and Aloysha
Humanity waiting for Godot which never comes
Europe's colonisation of middle east and african countries, cultural and economic hegemony of West in 19th century in the name of modernisation
Islam was viewed as fatalistic which is against progress
Secularism was alien and foreign Islamic world
Attaturk tried to transform Turkey to western nation by disestablishing Islam
Enforced reppression of religion could be destructive, mullah's opposition of Iranian regime and extravagant forms  underground Sufis in Turkey.
Muslim reformers were not hostile to West but was admirer.
al-afghani, 1889, an adept of the Israqi mysticism of Suhrawardi at the same passionate advocate of modernisation
Mohamed Abduh, 1905, disciple of al-afghani
Few Muslims find problem with modern science
Abduh regularly visited Europe to refresh himself regularly.
of opinion that attack against faylasufs mounted by al-Gazzhali had been immoderate
Iqbal, 1938, bridge between east and west
Importance of individualism
Perfect man - total receptivity to the Absolute
In 1920 Britain and France marched into middle east
Koran taught that a society which lived according to God's will could not fail
Muslim scholorship was increasingly devoted to apologetics or to dreaming of past
Journal al-Azhar 1930-1933, editor Husain, traditionalist, unconcerned about western scientist had long exploded proof god that he proposed
Farid Wajdi, from 1933, assured readers Islam was all right, scarcely referred to god
People in touch with modernity lost sense of God and vice versa, this led to instability which would spring political activism characterises modern fundamentalism
Jew philosophers developed 'the Science of Judaism' rewrote Jewish history in Hegelian terms.
Solomon Formstecher, 1889, god as a world soul, spirit depended on the world
New explanation for Judaism countering Hegel and Kant
Science of Judaism, presented as rational faith, wanted to get rid of Kabbalah
Nachman Krochmal, 1840, did not recoil from mysticism
though he was rational
New confidence by emancipation in Judaism was dealt by vicious anti-Semitism in Russia and east-europe
Hermann Cohen, 1918, insisted God was a human idea, religion teaches us to love our neighbor
Franz Rosenzweig, 1929, evolved entirely different concept of Judaism, an existentialist
Sacraments and symbolic actions point beyond themselves
Israel fulfil its destiny if its severed ties with mundane world and not involved in politics
In 1882, after first pogrom in Russia, few Jews left from east Europe to Palestine.
David Ben Gurion, 1973, socialist, went Palestine
Herzl, 1904, saw new Jewish venture as a colonial enterprise
Despite avowed secularism, Zionism expressed itself in religious terminology and essential a religion without God
Asher Ginsberg, wanted a spiritual centre in Palatine and did not think Jewish state was possible in Palestine
Aron B.Gordon, 1922, kabbalist converted to Zionism
By working the land, Jews would conquer it for themself
Socialist Zionist their movement conquest of Labour
Their work is secular prayer
Avraham Schlonsky, 1973, road builder
Kook, 1935, kabbalist, chief rabbi for Palestine Jewry, not dismayed by Zionism.
Atheistic Zionism was only a phase, was fulfilling God's plan
Elie Weisel, lived only for God in his childhood, Nazi death camp converted him to atheist
Experience of hanging a young boy in front of thousands of spectators
Death of God in concentration camp

History of God: Chapter 9: Enlightenment

16th century end West embarked on a process of technicalization which other civilization cudnt resist
Agrarian society was dependent on lot of factors such as crops, climate and soil erosion.
With the expansion of empire resources become limited and lead to its downfall
New west not dependent on agriculture
New set of problems, socio-political revolutions and relationship with God
Evolution of social condition in Europe - specialization, interdependence between various specialization, progressive development
Reconstitution of law
Progress - a culture based on change
Major intellectual considers themself as pioneer and explorer more than conserver of tradition
Enlighenment by means of their own exertion than rely on tradition or revelation from God.
Innovative scientist again looked Christian doctrines and wanted to research empiricaly
Pascal, 1662, child prodigy, Jansenist
Pensees, jottings of Pascal, pessimism abt human condition
He was convined that it is impossible to prove existense of God
he was the first modern to concede that belief in God is a personal choice
Faith was not rational assent but was a gamble
To opt God is all win situation
Faith was not intellectual certainity but a leap into darkness and moral enlightenment thereby
Descartes, 1650, mathematician and convinced catholic, proof of God rationally through reflexive introspection of mind
Cosmos completely Godless, no design in nature, unniverse is chaotic, experience of doubt tells us of existence of supreme and perfect being
Used idea of God to give faith in the reality of world
All admirable events on earth are mere physical events not to be related to God instead he was revealed in the eternal which he has ordained
Mystics were rare in Descartes' church and contemplation is pure cerebral activity
Newton, 1727, explained physical universe, nature and God source of activity like in Aristotle
Gravitation force drew component parts together
Proof of God's existence quoting the precision in nature's design, speed of earth's revolution(eg)
Besides God intelligent, he is powerful to manage great masses
Newton doesn't mention Bible
Time and space existed along with God but emanated from him, he created matter out of void
Considered mystery as ignorance and superstition
Trinity had been foisted on the church by Athanasius
Gentile theology founded by Noah - free of superstion
18th century Christians began to apply scientific method to Christian faith
Tindal and Toland, go back to basics, purge mystery and establish true rational religion, revelation unnecessary
Historians examining church history objectively, found fundamental dogma were developed in later centuries and not in new testament
Reimarus, 1768, critical biography of Christ questining the humanity of Christ scientific Scrutiny.
Some Christians started questioning traditional understanding of God, righteous, angered and embittered God could be the reason behind bloody Christian history - crusades, inquisitions and persecutions and lately bloodbath unleashed by reformation.
John Milton, 1674, puritan, mystical understanding of trinity
Milton's God cold and legalistic
Deism, impersonal God Deus which man can be discovered by own efforts
Voltaire, philosopher of Enlightenment, upheld idea of God, rejected cruel god and mysterious doctrines about him
Rejected Atheism equating to superstition and fanaticism
Spinoza, 1677, Jew, cast out of synagogue for his profound idea
Revered as hero of 20th ce modernity
Believed in God, not the God in bible
Prophets has been men of exceptional intellect and holiness; rites and symbols of faith could help masses
God is sum of all immutable eternal laws
No need for revelation and divine law; god is accessible to whole humanity
Cannot separate god and not-god part = atheism - impossible to say God exist
Moses Mendelssohn, 1786, opened the way for Jews to enter modern Europe
His philosophical god was personal god, has human characteristics
Relying revelation alone exclude many people frm divine plan
His philosophy dispensed with intellect and relied more on common sense
Mendelssohn defended Judaism rationally and plead toleration and respect for religion of reason.
Immanuel Kant, Critique of pure reason, 1781, enlightenment is man's exodus from self imposed tutelage
God's existence can neither be proved nor disapproved.
God as a convenience which could be misused, who fills gaps of our knowledge
Inorder to live a moral life, need a governor and that is God
John Wesley, 1791 and Zinzendorf, 1760, developed 'religion of heart' alongside the rationalism of enlightenment, Christianity of Christ
In 1738 Wesley underwent conversion experience to Moravian sect, religion simply affair of heart
Psychological effect of Christ's word on believer is the best proof of religion, doctrines abt God is useless
Margeret Mary Alacoque, 1690, indulged in masochistic act to prove her 'love' for the sacred heart
New religion of heart and rationalism of enlightenment/deism are both anti-establisment and both mistrusted external authority.
Oliver Cromwell, puritan government in England, 1649, apocalyptic excitement in people
Gerard Winstanley, founded community of 'diggers' in 1649 to restore mankind in original state
Quakers, George Fox and Naylor, preached all could approach God directly, preached pacifism, non_violence and egalitarianism
Brethren of the Free Spirit, late medieval heretics, believed god is in everything, every created thing is divine, it is reinterpretation of Plotinus's vision
Extremist Christian sects in Cromwell's England - Quakers, Levellers and Ranters were the revival of 14th ce Free Sprirt.
Ranters thought themselves as divine like Christ or new incarnation of God.
Ranters were accused of atheism and they claimed there was no distinction between god and man
William Franklin, 1650, his concubine? claimed he is her lord and Christ
John Robbins and his wife had similar claim
Jacob Bauthumely, ranter, his book The light and dark sides of God, 1650, like Sufi he believed God dwells in flesh of men and creatures
God was also present in Sin
Clarkson and Coppe, ranter, violate current sexual code and swearing and blaspheming in public
Fox, Quakers tried to restore balance.
Alternations of periods of repression and permissiveness, relaxed moral climate of enlightenment followed by repressions of the Victorian period which is accompanied by upsurge of fundamentalism
17th and 18th ce new born Christianity - unhealthy and violent and sometimes dangerous emotions and rehearsals
Great Awakening in New England, 1730, inspired by preaching of George Whitefield and sermons of Jonathan Edwards, parishioners plunged into a frenzy of religious fervour
After awakening there was a period of gradual withdrawal of spirit of god and soon Satan filled that void leading to suicidal despair
People who overcame this experience calmness and more joyful than Awakening
Many of the less privileged people found difficult to keep balance while dealing with God
Awakening is evangelical version of enlightenment, occured in the poorer colony
Messianism was essential to Edwards's religion, coming of God's kingdom
Calvanist were in the van of progress, introduced chemistry in curriculum in America, they disliked Newton's proposal of God rather preferred a God who is literally active
Judaism, in 1666 - apocalyptic year, a Jewish Messiah declared Redemption was at hand
Shabbetai, manic-depressive, claimed himself Messiah, announced Torah abrogated, expelled from his community and became wanderer, married a prostitute
Set off to Palestine to meet Nathan, an exorcist
Shabbetai annouced his Messianic mission with encouragement and persuasuion of Nathan on May 31, 1665; had followers from Jews worldwide
Arrested after arriving in Istanbul and imprisoned in Gallipoli
About his time of trial falls once again into a depression.
Sultan gave a choice of death or conversion to Islam and Shabbetai chose Islam and died as a loyal Muslim on Sep 17, 1676
This appalling news devastated his supporters and still some Jew remained loyal to Messiah
They converted to Islam but cling passionately to Judaism in secret, there is still small group Donmeh in Turkey.
Messianism never became mass movement, but its numbers cannot be undermined
Sabbatarianism flourished in Sephardic communities in Morocco, Balkans, Italy and Lithuania
Scholem's comparison of Sabbatarianism to Christianity, disciples proclaimed birth of new form Judaism after the death scandalous and apostate Messiah
Sabbatarians believed they live in messianic era nd and felt free to break away from traditional ideas abt god
Abraham Cardazo, 1706, born Marrano, Jews had been destined to apostate and god saved them through Messiah's supreme sacrifice
Cardazo's idea of 2 gods, one who has revealed himself to Israel and another who was common knowledge - god of Aristotle, Jew philosophers saadia and maimonides confused between 2 and taught they were one
Cardazo's Trinitarian theology - godhead consisted of 3 hypostases - 1. ancient one 2.god of Israel and 3. Shekinah exiled from godhead
Theology of incarnation, holy one (god of Israel) removed himself upward and Shabbetai Zevi ascended to be God in his place
Jacob Frank, 1795, led his Ashkenazi disciple into baptism in 1759, described him god incarnate, uneducated
He preached old law had been abrogated and all religion must be detroyed inorder for God to shine
Jacob followed preached cruder version of Cardazo's theology, he is incarnate of god of Israel
Inorder to ascend to god one has to descend to depths - ladder was shape of V.
After Frank's death, Frankism lost much of its anaarchism
Donmeh, the converts to Islam, were active young Turks and completely assimilated to secular Turkey
Moderate Sabbatarians were often pioneers in Jewish enlightenment
Radical Christians and Jews enabled them to work towards secularism
Hasidism, ecstatics emerged as the undisputed leader in 1730s in eastern Europe
Israel Ben eliezer, known as Besht, faith healer, exorcist and mystic, divine spark fallen were lodged in every creation, world was filled with presence of God
Hasidism was responsible to unite divine sparks trapped in his personal world - wife, servants
Devekuth, discipline of concentration was not only for elite but for all Jew to practice, to strip the veil of familiarity of world, while practising it reunites the divine spark in person or thing he was dealing to Godhead
Besht believed all beings existed in God, Hasidism would draw closer to God
Zaddik, Hadisic rabbi, avatar of his generation, people would crowd around him, a personality cult
Opposirion led by Rabbi Elijah, rational yet Kabbalist and master of Talmud
Besht can be seen as enabling simpler men and women to make the imaginative transition to the new world of modernity
Rabbi Zalman, 1813, in 1780s found a new form of Hasidism called Hobad which amalgamated philosophy with spirituality, metaphysical speculation preliminary to prayer because reveals limits of intellect
Hobad experienced ecstasy similar to Sufis experienced fana
Walli-ullah, 1762, impressive thinker, suspicious about cultural universalism
Decadent of Sufism and a new reforming movement that swing away from mysticism during 19th ce
Al-Wahhab, 1784, restore Islam to the purity of its beginnings, ibn-Saud
Muslims were beginning to step back from mysticism towards rationalistic type of piety.
Beginning of trending away from god himself in Europe
Jean Meslier, 1729, lived a life of priest died an atheist
David Hume, 1776, proof of God from the design of universe based on analogical arguments inconclusive
Diderot, 1784, was jailed for introducing similar concept in a letter
3 years before publishing the letter Diderot was a believer who believed that science can refute atheism
3 years later questioned Newton and was not convinced for external evidence of god
Diderot suggested matter is not passive, it is dynamic and has its own laws
Only nature and no God
Holbach, 1789, his book; no supernatural alternative to nature, but an unceasing chain of causes and effects
Religion created God out of despair and fear
Enlightened men should climb out of it
Poets and theologians conceived the idea of god and philosophers and scientist (including Newton) tried to save it
Nature is the only reality
Laplace, 1827, ejected God from physics

Ch-8 A god for reformers

Chapter 8, History of God:
Europe in 15th and 16th century - transitioning to new world
Western conception of god
Catholics and protestants
Period of crisis for Greeks, Jews and Muslims
Destruction of Muslim Spain was fatal for Jews
They were either had to take baptism or expulsion
Annihilation of Jews and new form of kabbalah
Succeeding Mongol invasion, started conservatism in Muslims - closed the door of ijtihad
Ibn taimiyah and al-Jawziyah - back to the sources - Quran and hadith and rejection of all later accretions
3 new Muslim empires, but consertavism still prevailed
Safavid dynasty, 1503, forced shiah on the subjects
Ottoman also started suppressing shiah and Christians
Shiah ulema refused safavid; in course of ijtihad; mobilized poor
Falasafah of shiah, mulla sadra, 17th ce
Priority for mysticism than pure science and metaphysics
Believed in God's essence (cannot be sensed) and attributes
Union with god is possible in this world
Like ibn Arabi, god is not in different objective world, but in personal divine world
Expulsion of Jews from European cities in 15th century
This led to new form of spirituality in dislocated Jews who settled in ottoman empire.
Kabbalah appealed to common Jew after 1492 disaster
Falasah weakened in Jew spirituality
In Safed, kabbalah developed new intensity - absolute homelessness equated with absolute Godliness
Kabbalist - platonic view of god - emanation and god comprised whole of reality
Luria 1572, kabbalist - en sof vacated a region where he can self-reveal and create
God's mercy separated from wrath and thrusted into empty space
Rest of the divine light penetrated there to become primordial man
Complete mess of God's essense in sefiroth
After break through, re-integrated the 10 essence to 5 countenance - 2 couples in that
Made humanity to help redeem the scattered divine light
Since Adam sinned it again scattered and he chose Israel to redeem and they are also scattered
By observing Torah, Jew help god in re-forming.
Divine copulation between last 2 countenance and about reintegrate - Adam's sin fell shekinah
Luria's myth widely accepted because it brought hope to Jews
Luria's disciplines - seclusion, fasting
Before spirtual exercise attain peace of mind and happiness
Sadness is related to evil
Christians in the same time cudnt produce positive spirituality amidst disasters - black death, ..
Upsurge of mysticism in 14th century in  Europe
Imitation of Christ - meditating abt Jesus as man and his physical pain
Western concentration of human Christ in 15th century and also Mary and saints
Christian philosopher and humanist turned to religious experience than metaphysics
Nicholos of cusa, 1444, explained abt god rationally, but aware leaving everything behind when approaching him
Witch craze in 16th and 17th ce, Satan a figure of ungovernable evil and with priapic sexual appetite, black mass worshiping devil, all was revolt against reppressive religion and inexorable god
Martin Luther, 1546, believed in witchcraft and believed Christian life battle against Satan.
Protestant and Catholic reformation
God characterized by wrath. Trying to do best to please him.
God active and man passive
God can be only found in suffering and cross
Rejected scholasticism and abstruse theology, but stick to trinity
Existence of god cannot be proved rationally
Luther has been aggressive
John Calvin, 1564, his reformation had more profound effect on western ethos
Like Zwingli, Calvin not interested in dogma and his concern was centered on social, political and economic
Executed servetus for his denial of trinity
Believed in God's absolute sovereignty.
Protestants - rejection of intermediary
puritans and protestants - image smashing and condemnation of graven images
Idea of predestination was not central to Calvin's thought - choice of some and damnation of other by god
predestination became distinguishing for calvanist after his death
projected Christianity rationale and coherent ideology unlike Reformers who had rejected rationalistic discussion of God
Puritans obsessed with predestination
Ignatius, 1556, Jesuits, emphasis on direct experience of god, introduced spiritual exercise
Experienced god peace, hope and joy; evil spirit as disquiet, sadness
Jesuits travelled across globe and evangelized
Catholic saint regarded worldly affairs and god as irreconcilable.
Period of extreme anxiety in europe - God seems unable to alleviate anxiety of people.
New sect of atheism.. denial of existence of God.. not LIKE a full fledged atheism prevalent today.
French didnt HAVE vocabulary or syntax for scepticism
Accused atheist on polemic rather than unbeliever
Reformers god supported new science
But Roman catholic church opposed heliocentric concept of coppernicus and Galileo, because it contradicted scripture
Literalist inerpretation of scripture conflicted with new scientific findings - solar system vs hell and heaven
This stand enabled new 'atheist ' in 18th ce
New Jesuit explained God rationally and didnt consider imaginative god