Gabriel Vahanian

The Death of God: The Culture of Our Post-Christian Era is a thought-provoking book written by Gabriel Vahanian. The book explores the concept of the death of God and how it has impacted our post-Christian culture. Vahanian argues that the death of God has had a profound impact on our society, leading to a culture that is increasingly secular and focused on materialism. The book begins by examining the historical roots of the concept of the death of God, tracing its origins back to the Enlightenment and the rise of modern science. Vahanian then explores how this concept has been embraced by various thinkers and writers throughout history, including Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre. Throughout the book, Vahanian argues that the death of God has led to a crisis of meaning in our society, as people struggle to find purpose and direction in a world that seems increasingly meaningless. He also explores how this crisis has led to a rise in various forms of religious and spiritual seeking, as people attempt to find meaning and purpose in alternative ways. Overall, The Death of God: The Culture of Our Post-Christian Era is a thought-provoking and insightful book that explores some of the most pressing issues facing our society today. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of religion, culture, and philosophy. This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Conservative religious figures routinely warn against the dangers of secularization, just as proponents of the modern secular state decry the theocratic tendencies of religion. Both sides assume that the sacred and the secular are diametrically opposed. Gabriel Vahanian rightly calls such misbegotten assumptions into question. The problem lies elsewhere. In the light of the biblical dialectic of holiness and the secular, ""Praise of the Secular"" deftly ""vindicates"" the secular, weaving together philosophy, history, and theology in fine Derridean, yet reinforced, deconstructionist fashion. Vahanian argues that religion, far from being opposed to the secular, finds its fulfillment in the secular world. Armed with a compelling interpretation of Christ's incarnation, he claims that ""we have not grasped John's notion of the word become flesh, even of God as wording, until or unless we realize it must so expand as to demand the worlding of that very word, extending it into secular relevance."" In other words, the holy, if not the sacred, demands its own secularization. In this poetically written and profoundly life-affirming work, Vahanian reinvigorates the secular against the claims of fundamentalism, which makes the relative absolute, and against the ideology of a kind of atheism (""secularism"" in his term), which makes the absolute relative.