Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

“You are my witnesses … and I am God” (Isaiah 43:12) — If you are not my witnesses, then I am, as it were, not God” (Pesikta D’Rav Kahana, 102b).

In the sixties, there was considerable debate in both Christian and Jewish circles whether it was pertinent to believe in God any longer. In the Christian community a number of theologians argued that it is impossible to speak of God in a secular age that can no longer discern the meaning or value of biblical language. In the 1960s, philosophers, historians, theologians, and anthropologists proclaimed the “death of God” and Christianity and the birth of a new secular post-modern culture. Time Magazine’s most famous single issue featured the theme: “Is God Dead?” Maybe Nietzsche was right after all in his forensic description of Western religion’s demise.

Protestant theologians Thomas Altizer and Gabriel Vahanian popularized the phrase “death of God”[1] back in the 1960’s, maintaining that it is easier to understand oneself without God than with God. Harvard Professor Harvey Cox, too, in his celebrated book, The Secular City, argues that the different biblical designations of God reflected a cultural and political climate. To call God “King” could only have meaning in an age where monarchs reigned. To identify God as “Shepherd” could only have meaning in a pastoral society. Using such archaic symbolizations of God may actually subvert the message of faith instead of fostering it. [2] The “death of God” movement is thus a crisis in meaning—the modern era no longer knows how to make theological sense out of its traditional metaphors of God.

Jewish thinkers approach the “death of God” theology with a variety of different responses. Put in simple terms, some argue that because of the horrors of Auschwitz and Hiroshima, it seemed as if God had gone on vacation. One of the most outspoken advocates of this particular point of view is Professor Richard Rubenstein. For Rubenstein, Auschwitz demonstrates that human life would have no essential value because there is no transcendental purpose or process that is in control of the human condition. Ultimate meaning and purpose must derive from human beings and not from God.

In effect, community has to take the place of God. Granted, religious precepts and rituals could still be maintained, but only as sociological and psychological props. Jews as a result of the Holocaust must continue as a community but without the God of Judaism. Rubenstein’s view represents a broad segment of the secular Jewish intelligentsia. On the other hand, some Jewish scholars would argue differently and affirm that the death of God theology points to a loss or absence of the Divine in our contemporary age. Jacob Neusner notes:

• I do not understand the question what the “God is dead” theologians are saying. It seems to me they may be saying two things. First, the experience of the sacred, or God, is no longer widely available; second, that experience is no longer available in classical ways. Both of these statements describe Jewish existence, and have for some time, though we prefer to phrase them differently. I think it is clear that God is hiding His face from the world. . . .We are no longer able to approach the gates of heaven, surely not open them with the keys that used to work. God is “dead” for many Jews. In the Jewish community, even the flame of the Yahrzeit candle long ago flickered out. In the synagogue, however, Jewry still keeps up the graveyard. I do not despair. We Jews have passed this way before.”[3] (Emphasis added.)

Neusner’s evocative image of the “graveyard” is suggestive of numbness, death and detachment. This metaphor would certainly describe the spiritual life of many modern Jews. Neusner’s observation may have antecedents in several rabbinic teachings that suggest that God has taken a leave of absence of the world. Some sages of the Talmud argued that the Divine Presence (a.k.a. the “Shekhinah”) has retreated to Heaven. In the words of the Midrash, “When the Temple was burned, the Holy Blessed One cried and said: ‘I no longer have a seat upon earth. I shall remove my Shekhinah from there and ascend to my first habitation.’”[4]

We know from the midrashic literature that violence in the world causes the Shekhinah to withdraw, but the midrashic writers never imagined that religious violence in the name of YHWH or Allah, or Christ, leads to a weakening of faith through the false witnessing of God to the world. The commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain . . .” may also mean, “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name” (Exod. 20:7).

Religious people misusing God’s Name for pecuniary gain and for self-righteous purposes represents the epitome of idolatry in our time. True religion needs to nurture a sense of biophilia-a love and reverence for life. Instead, religious fanaticism leads to a devaluation of human dignity and worth. This is a problem all faiths need to seriously examine. We need to listen to the words of the agnostics and atheists with humility and a willingness to understand the root causes of their unbelief. In some ways, they function much like the prophets of old-they confront us by scoffing at our empty theological platitudes about faith and our total lack of spiritual integrity. Continue Reading