We are at the point in our series where we are considering the “death of God,” and I would be remiss if we didn’t pause and reflect upon Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s remarks on what he called “Christianity come of age.” In a letter to his friend Eberhard Bethge written from prison on April 30, 1944, Bonhoeffer […]
Category: Exile & Empire
A Theopoetics of Exile: The Death of God
We have seen thus far in this series that we as humans sense within ourselves a lack or a void, and further, that this void is intrinsic to the nature of reality itself. The idea, then (so prominent in Christian circles), that this sense of incompleteness is some unnatural intruder that can be overcome if we do […]
A Theopoetics of Exile: Quantum? I Barely Knew Him!
In my last two posts I have discussed the lack, or void, that seems to be intrinsic to the human experience. As I have suggested, the way we often deal with this sense of emptiness is to insist that it is an unnatural intruder that must be overcome, and further, the Christian solution is to […]
A Theopoetics of Exile: The Gospel According to Satan
In our last article we considered the fact that we as humans feel within ourselves a lack or a void that we want to overcome. We often look to some “sacred object” that, if attained, will give us the sense of fulfillment we crave. We desperately want to avoid the void. Consider the words of […]
A Theopoetics of Exile: Avoiding the Void
Those who have been following my work will know that I have been highlighting the concept of “Exile” as a kind of catch-all category to describe ideas like divine weakness, folly, and (what Luther called) the theology of the cross. Further, I am placing Exile in contradistinction from “Empire,” which is the source of ideas […]