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| Graven Ideologies | | Date Created: Nov 26, 2003, 01:16 PM |
| I am surprised and disappointed that Benson's Graven Ideologies does not identify an insufficiently trinitarian theology as one of reasons for the revolt against Christendom in the 18th and 19th centuries. He does a nice job of showing that for Nietzsche the requiem aeternam deo was largely a requiem aeternam metahysicae. N.'s proclamation of God's death was more of a obituary for "the god of the philosophers." Tragically, of course, the god of the philosophers and the God of Christian faith were joined at the hip, or better, at the head, so that killing one jeopardized the life of the other. But this was precisely the problem. A distinctively Christian, trinitarian account of God's existence and life would not have resulted in the sort of intellectual and cultural malaise that N. so roundly criticizes. N's brand of atheism was not so much a protest against the true God, but against an a-trinitarian theism. Willis's Theism, Atheism and the Doctrine of the Trinity would make a nice companion volume to Benson's. I haven't finished the last half of Benson's book, but I have skimmed his discussion of Levinas, Derrida, and Marion without finding any extended discussion of the Trinity. Bummer. |
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