- Post-theism
Post-theism is a variant of
nontheism that proposes to have not so much rejectedtheism as rendered it obsolete, thatGod belongs to a stage of human development now past. As such, it is the opposite ofantitheism within nontheism. The term appears in Christian liberal theology andPostchristianity .Frank Hugh Foster in a 1918 lecture announced that modern culture had arrived at a "post-theistic stage" in which humanity has taken possession of the powers of agency and creativity that had formerly been projected upon God. [Gary J. Dorrien , "The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Realism, and Modernity, 1900-1950" (2003), ISBN 978-0664223557, p. 177f.] Post-theism thus recognizes the point made bycriticism of atheism that atheism may lead to moral defect, but at the same time asserts that the only reason for theism is the prevention of such defects, and that once nontheistic morality has reached maturity, theism has fulfilled its function and may be discarded.Denys Turner argues thatKarl Marx did not choose atheism over theism, but rejected the binary "Feuerbachian" choice altogether, a position which by being post-theistic is at the same time necessarily post-atheistic. [D. Turner, "Religion: Illusions and liberation", in: Terrell Carver (ed), "The Cambridge Companion to Marx" (1991), ISBN 978-0521366946, p. 337. ]Related ideas include
Friedrich Nietzsche 's pronouncement that "God is dead ", and less pessimistically, thetranstheism ofPaul Tillich orPema Chödrön .References
*H. de Vries (Editor), H. a. Krop, " [http://www.peeters-leuven.be/boekoverz.asp?nr=7002 Post-Theism: Reframing the Judeo-Christian Tradition] " (2000), ISBN 978-9042908536
ee also
*
Deconstruction-and-religion
*Humanism
*Neopaganism
*Postchristianity
*Postmodern Christianity
*Universalism
*Virtuous pagan External links
* [http://cpxbrex.livejournal.com/167943.html Post-colonialism and Post-theism] by Christopher Bradley (2007)
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