After God: The Future of Religion

After God: The Future of ReligionWhat is it about religion that, despite all odds, allows it to survive? In After God, the renowned scholar Don Cupitt considers the fate of religion, now that we have effectively killed off our gods. The author, a trained theologian and an ordained priest in the Church of England, takes us through the evolution of religious belief from the dawn of the gods to their twilight as well as to the morning after. Tracing the postmodern pilgrimage from

What is it about religion that, despite all odds, allows it to survive? In After God, the renowned scholar Don Cupitt considers the fate of religion, now that we have effectively killed off our gods. The author, a trained theologian and an ordained priest in the Church of England, takes us through the evolution of religious belief from the dawn of the gods to their twilight--as well as to the morning after.Tracing the postmodern pilgrimage from traditional belief to cynicism to faith after God, Cupitt says we need to build a new religious vocabulary. He challenges us to see religion less as an ideology and more as a tool kit, a set of techniques--perhaps an art form--enhancing our lives the way that literature and art do."A heretic's heretic" and "an atheist priest," Cupitt has respect for both skepticism and devotion. He neither accepts nor denies religion at face value; he takes faith to pieces, throws away what he can't use, and assembles the remainder into new and extraordinary shapes, challenging us to creatively reshape it, give it new language, reinvent it.After God is for those who find it hard to be among the congregation of an orthodox religion but who miss the discipline and rewards of practicing a faith, and for the person who will understand Cupitt when he writes, "I actually think that I love God more now that I know God is voluntary. Perhaps God had to die to purify our love for him."

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 04/18/1997
ISBN: 9780465045143
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 9.57h x 5.94w x 0.73d

Review Citations: Library Journal 04/01/1997 pg. 98
Booklist 04/15/1997 pg. 1366
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/1997 pg. 515