Is God Dead?

In April 1966, Time Magazine asked on its front cover: Is God Dead? Is this question as relevant as it was then? As in the sixties of last century, we find ourselves in a world plagued by violence and injustice, and scenarios of the future often paint a bleak picture. Yet almost one hundred and fifty years after philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously stated that God is dead, God is actually still very much alive to a great many people. What does this ongoing belief in God say about our so-called ‘secular modernity’?

In this edition of Let’s Ask, Gideon Baker will take Nietzsche’s statement as his starting point, tracing its philosophical, political and theological implications. Sjoerd Griffioen will reflect on this talk afterwards.

Gideon Baker is an Associate Professor in the School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Australia. His research engages with debates in political theology, specifically the question of nihilism, messianic political thought and, more recently, philosophical atheism and the death of God.

Sjoerd Griffioen is a lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Groningen. He received his PhD (cum laude) in 2020 with a dissertation on the German secularisation debate of the 1960's-1980's, specialising in religion, politics, and modernity in modern philosophy.

In Let's Ask, researchers share their knowledge to provide context to topical issues and will answer your questions.