American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas

by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

Nietzsche’s presence in this 1960s discourse is most apparent in the work of Thomas J. J. Altizer, professor of Bible and religion at Emory University and the leading light of death of God theology. Altizer’s “Gospel of Christian Atheism” was no cheeky appeal to antireligionists, but a deeply theological argument about how the death of God is fundamental to the Christian message. Altizer turned to Nietzsche to understand how the birth of Christianity was instantiated in Christ’s death. It was the self-sacrifice of the living God for his people. The death of God was no divine abandonment of his creation, Altizer contended, but the ultimate redemptive act on its behalf. Nietzsche’s claims helped modern Christians understand how God works in the world, how Christianity “entered time and history” and became a “‘world-affirming’ religion” —how death became life.99 “It is precisely the acceptance of Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God that is the real test of a contemporary form of faith,” Altizer argued.