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“We Confess that we are Atheists”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Stephen Bullivant
Stephen Bullivant*
Affiliation:
St Mary's University
*
Twickenham, TW1 4SX. stephen.bullivant@stmarys.ac.uk
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Abstract

In the immortal words of Herbert McCabe, ‘Whatever we are referring to when we use the word “God” it can no more be a god than it can be a model aeroplane or half-past eleven’ (God Still Matters). This striking idea – the “atheism” of true Christianity – has, in fact, a long pedigree. This paper traces its history from the early Church to the Angelic Doctor himself. The essential point is this: if our God really is who Christians claim God is, then all our words about God – including the word “god” – must necessarily fall short.

Keywords

AtheismNegative TheologyJustin MartyrHerbert McCabeIdolatry
Type
Catholic Theological Association 2019 Conference Papers
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 101 , Issue 1092 , March 2020 , pp. 120 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 An earlier version of some of this paper was published in Faith and Unbelief (London: Canterbury Press, 2013).

2 Towey, A., An Introduction to Christian Theology (London: T & T. Clark, 2018), p. 201Google Scholar.

3 The translation used here (slightly amended) is taken from Staniforth, Maxwell (trans.), Early Christian Writings (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), pp. 153-67Google Scholar.

4 The Martyrdom of Polycarp, 12 in Staniforth op. cit.

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7 This, and all other quotations from Justin's and Pseudo-Justin's (see below) writings, may be found in Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James (eds), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume I: The Apostolic Fathers – Justin Martyr – Irenaeus (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1996)Google Scholar. These and a huge number of other translated texts from the early Church fathers can also be found online at: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/.

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11 Augustine, On the Trinity, 5.10; quoted in O'Collins, G., ‘The Incarnation: The Critical Issues’ in The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God, ed by Davis, S. T., Kendall, D. & O'Collins, G., 2004, p. 141Google Scholar.

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13 McCabe, op. cit., p. 56.

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15 L. Irvine, ‘Slavoj Žižek's jokes are no laughing matter’, Guardian, 6 January 2012, available online at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/jan/06/slavoj-zizek-jokes.

16 Žižek, S., Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism (London: Verso Books, 2012), p. 116Google Scholar.

17 E. Bloch, op. cit., p. 21.

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22 See Pyman, A., ‘Dostoevsky in the Prism of the Orthodox Semiosphere’ in Pattinson, G. & Thompson, D. O., op. cit., p. 103CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 H. McCabe, op. cit., p. 32.

24 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, IV, 20, 4.

25 D. Turner, op. cit., p. 11.