MACMILLAN Reflections on God and the Death of God: Philosophy, Spirituality, and Religion

What is God?  What does it mean to believe in God?  What happens to God after the death of God? This book examines “the death of God” from a philosophical standpoint. It focuses on monotheism, polytheism, and nature, and it discusses the renewed importance of spirituality―and the “spiritual but not religious”―in response to the death of God. In recent years, religious belief has been in decline, but secularism cannot satisfy our spiritual needs.  We are now living in a “post-secular” age in which the relationship between philosophy, spirituality, and religion must be re-examined. As an exploratory essay, this book engages the reader at a profound level, and considers a variety of modern thinkers, including Nietzsche, Hegel, Freud, Levinas, Assmann, and Buber.  It offers a sustained meditation on the origin of God, the death of God, and the future of “God” as a guiding ideal.  Review “Richard White has a seemingly paradoxical message:  Perform the sacred task of killing God and then appeal to God with good conscience! His genius is to persuasively deliver it in a philosophically sophisticated but refreshingly accessible style. White is uniquely capable of articulating the aspirations of those who are spiritual but not necessarily religious.” (Roderick Nicholls, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Cape Breton University, Canada) From the Back Cover What is God?  What does it mean to believe in God?  What happens to God after the death of God? This book examines “the death of God” from a philosophical standpoint. It focuses on monotheism, polytheism, and nature, and it discusses the renewed importance of spirituality―and the “spiritual but not religious”―in response to the death of God. In recent years, religious belief has been in decline, but secularism cannot satisfy our spiritual needs.  We are now living in a “post-secular” age in which the relationship between philosophy, spirituality, and religion must be re-examined. As an exploratory essay, this book engages the reader at a profound level, and considers a variety of modern thinkers, including Nietzsche, Hegel, Freud, Levinas, Assmann, and Buber.  It offers a sustained meditation on the origin of God, the death of God, and the future of “God” as a guiding ideal.  About the Author Richard White is a Professor of Philosophy at Creighton University, USA, where he teaches continental philosophy and the philosophy of spirituality.