https://understorey.blog/blog/theothanatology/Recent content in Theothanatology on UnderStoreyHugoen-USThis work is marked CC0 1.0. To view a copy of this mark, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://understorey.blog/an-understanding-of-the-death-of-god/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://understorey.blog/an-understanding-of-the-death-of-god/<p>This work is marked <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1.0</a>.</p> <hr> <p>There are two common ways of thinking about the death of God. The first is what I will term the Altizerian understanding, so named after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._J._Altizer">Thomas Altizer</a>. It consists of the idea that God was an ontological reality. On this view, God could be conceived as a person, a being, a force, or whatever else. God, however, emptied himself and took on the form of man in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He was then crucified and killed at Golgotha, the result of which was the literal death of God. The ontologically real God that we read about in the Hebrew scriptures expires upon the cross. Thus, God is dead.</p>