The Death of God: An Investigation into the History of the Western Concept of God

While for the largest part of its history humankind has experienced its daily life in the ‘here and now' in terms of a more fundamental, transcendent realm, a significant group of Westerners, in contrast, is living life without any reference to such a transcendent realm. From a Christian perspective, this situation is complicated by the fact that this loss of transcendence occurred in the Christian West. This raises the question of the relation between Christianity and secularization. How did the idea of the "Death of God" come about, where were its origins? Frederiek Depoortere presents a fascinating investigation into the history of the concept of God through Greek philosophy, Mediaeval theology, the Reformation to Early Modern philosophy. He proves that the roots of modern secularism can be traced back to the epistemology of the first metaphysicians of Greek philosophy and the Christian theologians, who developed their concepts further.