Written by: Julie Dodge on June 27, 2014

Last night I took myself out for a lovely Lebanese dinner while reading Terry Eagleton’s Culture and the Death of God.[i] A you ng family of four came in shortly after I, and was seated across from me. I couldn’t help but be enamored by them; the dad engaging consciously with his young son, while the two year old, curly haired daughter with the giant cowboy hat clambered over her mother. At one point the boy, who appeared to be around five, began a theological discourse with his father.

“Dad, who made man?”

“God did,” the father easily replied.

“Who made God?”

“Well, no one. God was already here.”

“Yeah, but who made God?”

“That’s a good question. I don’t know.” And then the dad creatively diverted his son by going through the menu.

I smiled to myself as I turned back to the book. We know, and we don’t know. Oh how we would love to give a final, concrete answer, but alas, God is simply bigger than our minds can grasp or words can describe. As I read on, I kept thinking to myself, “I’ve read this before.” When I got home, I pulled out Michael Harrington’s The Politics at God’s Funeral: The Spiritual Crisis of Western Civilization.[ii]  Both Eagleton and Harrington walk the reader through philosophical and social thought of the past 300 years.  Beginning with the Enlightenment, and then walking through the Idealists, Romantics, and Modernism, both authors suggest that society has moved away from God, and gradually replaced him with other ideas, practices, and beliefs. Both point to heightened individualism as undermining God, among other things.

Harrington, writing thirty years ago, left God dead or at least dying.[iii] But Eagleton notes that, “Whenever the Almighty seems safely dispatched, he is always liable to stage a reappearance in one disguise or another.”[iv] As I read, I kept thinking of the phrase, “Rumors of my death have been grossly exaggerated.”[v]  For Eagleton, God reappears via fundamentalist Islam, as demonstrated by the post-9/11 War on Terror. In his rendition, however, God is barbaric.

I find two flaws in the writing of both Eagleton and Harrington. The first flaw is the representation of God as a social construct. Perhaps this is one reason why it is so hard to “safely dispatch” God: He actually exists. I concede that His existence is a matter of faith, yet it is the foundation for my philosophy and theology. I believe that Eagleton and Harrington are both writing more to the social institution of religion, as opposed to the reality of God, though they and so many other social theorists treat these as interchangeable. Now, if one were to tell me that the influence of formal or institutional religion has waned in post-modern times, I would have to concur. But I will also return to this thought.

The second flaw is the apparent disdain for the common man, or the masses, as reflected through the writings of many of the cited thinkers. Eagleton acknowledges this disdain, though never really elevates them. Religion or God is relegated to the status of mythology by the Idealists, and even seen as necessary to maintain social order. Yet, social theory is more than a discussion of the form and structure of society. It is built upon the backs of the masses. Without the common man, there is no society. It’s odd that it was Marx and his contemporaries that wrote of the need to raise up the masses/workers, yet Marx removed God from the equation. Is it any accident that Nietzsche’s Übermensch is an overseer or perhaps herder of men? Jesus saw the masses and felt compassion for them, for they were like “sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:6).

Twenty five years ago I wrote a response to Harrington’s book in my journal. I wrote from a ten by twelve foot “cabin” with no electricity or plumbing, along the Kaliakh River in southeast Alaska, where there was no evidence of religion, but ample evidence of God. I wrote:

… “the eye is not satisfied with seeing, and the ear is not filled with hearing.” (Eccl. 1:8) There is still doubt. Physical observation/scientific process cannot explain what the eye cannot see or the ear cannot hear. So man fumbles about in his search of a proof for God’s existence – or non-existence – but he will not find it. The evidence has already been denied by a “wise” social/ political/economic position. God has not left “himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:17). He has made Himself evident through Creation (Rom. 1:20) such that His “invisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Further, He has made Himself evident within our hearts (Rom 1:19) and He has written His law upon our hearts (Jer. 31:33-34). And yet, those professing to be wise have become fools. With their Reason and Science they have tried to bring God into human grasp… And I question still more: What word can describe God? What boundary may border Him? What box may contain Him? …  And thus anyone who would seek to explain or prove God by natural means will fail, for the man knows not the Spirit. “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised (I Cor. 1:14)… These others hold “to a form of godliness (or religion), although they have denied its power… always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Tim. 3:5,7).

My journal entry brings me back to the idea of God as a social construct. As long as He is relegated to such status, man attempts to limit Him. But then again, perhaps this is not as negative as some would think. I am not convinced that God is as fond of religion as a social institution as some might think. Jesus spoke harsh words against the institutional leaders of religion. He came to restore relationship between God and His people, not to restore religion, per se. Religion is a bi-product, but it is not the goal. Perhaps it is here that we may find God alive: in the individual hearts and minds of the masses. While we struggle with the challenges of individualism and consumerism, perhaps this is where God’s real reappearance is. Perhaps it through infiltrating the masses and engaging in personal relationship with God – without sacrificing the practice of gathering together to worship – that the Spirit of God lives and dances.

About the Author

Julie Dodge

Julie loves coffee and warm summer days. She is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Concordia University, Portland, a consultant for non-profit organizations, and a leader at The Trinity Project.