The Eclipse of God

1. The Eclipse of God Reflects Humanity's Incapacity

Actually, this proclamation means only that man has become incapable of apprehending a reality absolutely independent of himself and of having a relation with it—incapable, moreover, of imaginatively perceiving this reality and representing it in images, since it eludes direct contemplation.

Loss of apprehension. The "eclipse of God" isn't about God's non-existence, but humanity's diminishing ability to perceive and relate to a reality beyond itself. This incapacity extends to forming meaningful images of the divine, as these images arise from genuine encounters with divine power.

Shift in focus. Modern individuals often replace a living relationship with an independent reality with representations they can control, or mere conceptual residues. This shift leads to the belief that religion is merely an intra-psychic process, a soliloquy rather than a dialogue with the divine.

Consequences of solipsism. The inability to apprehend an independent reality stems from a broader solipsism, where human subjectivity becomes the sole measure of existence. This perspective undermines the possibility of genuine encounters with the divine, reducing them to projections of the self.

2. Concepts of God Need Living Experience

The more abstract the concept, the more does it need to be balanced by the evidence of living experience, with which it is intimately bound up rather than linked in an intellectual system.

Balancing abstraction. Abstract concepts of God require the grounding of living experience to remain meaningful. Without this balance, concepts become detached from religious actuality, confined to discursive thinking.

Anthropomorphism's role. Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human traits to God, reflects our need to preserve the concrete quality of divine encounters. It arises from the experience of a primary Thou, demanding reciprocity, whether in awe, rapture, or guidance.

Spinoza's example. Spinoza's doctrine illustrates this supplementation. Despite his anti-anthropomorphic efforts, he introduced love as a concrete fact, bridging the gap between abstract concept and real relation. God's love, manifested in human love, reveals the essence of divine-human encounter.

3. Modern Thought Seeks to Unmake God's Reality

It seeks, on the one hand, to preserve the idea of the divine as the true concern of religion, and, on the other hand, to destroy the reality of the idea of God and thereby also the reality of our relation to Him.

Contradictory aims. Contemporary thinking attempts to maintain the idea of the divine while simultaneously undermining the reality of God and our relationship with Him. This is achieved through various means, from metaphysics to psychology.

Kant's influence. Kant's proposition that "God is not an external substance, but only a moral condition within us" exemplifies this trend. Reducing God to an internal condition fails to meet the need for an absolute source of moral obligation.

Hegel's abstraction. Hegel's concept of God as universal reason, accessible only to reason, ignores the existential reality of the I and Thou. God becomes an instrument of self-realization, never entering into a living, direct relationship with us.

4. Philosophy's Abstraction vs. Religion's Concreteness

All great philosophy, on the other hand,-shows us that cogitative truth means making the absolute into an object from which all other objects must be derived.

Duality of approaches. Religious reality involves living in relationship to an unconditionally affirmed Being, while philosophical truth entails objectifying the absolute to derive all other objects. This distinction highlights the fundamental difference in approach.

I-Thou vs. Subject-Object. Religion is founded on the I-Thou duality, finding fulfillment in the religious relationship. Philosophy, conversely, is based on the subject-object duality, sustaining itself through abstraction.

Meaning in the concrete. Religion emphasizes the openness and accessibility of meaning in the actual lived concrete, not above the struggle with reality but within it. Philosophy, however, begins with looking away from the concrete situation, initiating abstraction.

5. Religious Reality Begins with the "Fear of God"

It comes when our existence between birth and death becomes incomprehensible and uncanny, when all security is shattered through the mystery.

Encountering the mystery. Religious reality commences with the "fear of God," arising when existence becomes incomprehensible and all security is shattered by mystery. This is not a relative mystery, but an essential inscrutableness.

Entering the everyday. Through this gate of dread, the believing person steps into the hallowed everyday, directed to the concrete situations of existence. Accepting the situation as given by the Giver is what Biblical religion terms the "fear of God."

Personal character. Every genuine religious expression possesses an open or hidden personal character, spoken from a concrete situation where the person participates as a person. Accepting the concrete situation does not mean accepting everything as "God-given" in its factuality, but engaging with it, even in opposition.

6. Love of God Transcends Philosophical Ideas

If I love God, then I no longer think Him... only the sponsor of earthly morals.

Pascal's choice. Pascal's shift from the God of philosophers to the God of Abraham signifies a move from an abstract idea to a living presence. The God of Abraham is beyond systems of thought, absorbing all ideas.

Kant's struggle. Kant's notes reveal a struggle to reconcile the idea of God with belief in Him. He grappled with whether God is merely a thought within us or an external entity, ultimately unable to bridge the gap.

Cohen's transformation. Hermann Cohen, initially viewing God as an idea, underwent a transformation, embracing the love of God. This love transcended knowledge, filling his consciousness and leading him to see God as the avenger of the poor.

7. Sartre's Atheism Denies Inherent Religious Need

This silence of the transcendent, combined with the perseverance of the religious need in modern man, that is the great concern to-day as yesterday.

Dismissing the transcendent. Sartre's atheistic existentialism dismisses the search for God, urging humanity to embrace creative freedom. He sees the "silence of the transcendent" as a call to forget God and affirm human subjectivity.

Ignoring inherent need. Sartre's perspective fails to acknowledge the inherent religious need within human existence. Existence, he argues, is existing "for oneself," but this ignores the fundamental human experience of standing before the undefinable X.

Inventing values. Sartre posits that since God is silent, humans must invent values. However, true meaning and value are discovered in meeting with Being, not freely chosen from existing possibilities.

8. Heidegger's "Coming God" Risks Historical Delusion

They announce immediately the God upon whom the certainty of salvation in a supernatural blessedness reckons.

Ontological thinking. Heidegger seeks a new ontological thinking after the "death of God," where being attains illumination through man. This prepares for a turning point where the divine, or the holy, appears in new forms.

Misunderstanding prophecy. Heidegger misunderstands the prophets of Israel, claiming they announce a God for security. In reality, they shatter security, proclaiming a God who demands human creatures become real.

Enticement of time. Heidegger's thought, meant to prepare for the rise of the holy, risks falling into the nets of historical time. By allying his thought with a specific hour, he may succumb to delusion, answering a "holy" without human holiness.

9. Jung's Psychology Proclaims Psychic Immanence

Modern consciousness abhors faith and also as a result the religions that are founded on it.

Psychic events. Jung defines religion as a relation to psychic events, not to a transcendent Being. He conceives of God as an "autonomous psychic content," not a reality to which psychic content corresponds.

Soul as reality. Jung identifies with the modern consciousness that "abhors" faith, turning instead to the soul as the only sphere harboring the divine. The soul produces metaphysical expressions, making it the condition and reality of metaphysics.

Gnostic influence. Jung's psychology, influenced by Gnosticism, leads to the "incarnation of God" in the self. This self, a unification of opposites, becomes the new deity, embracing Christ and Satan within itself.

10. The Ethical Needs the Religious to be Absolute

From this awareness, when it is fully present, the comparison between what one actually is and what one is intended to be can emerge.

Ethical vs. Religious. The ethical involves distinguishing between good and evil based on intrinsic value, while the religious is the relation to the Absolute. The religious bestows absoluteness upon the ethical, which receives it.

Theonomy, not heteronomy. Theonomy, where divine law seeks our own, reveals ourselves through revelation. In this reciprocity, there is no imposition, but a free apprehension of what is to be disclosed.

Binding to the Absolute. Twice in history, attempts have been made to bind the ethical to the Absolute: in Oriental and Greek antiquity with a universal continuity of meaning, and in Israel with a covenantal union based on righteousness.

11. The "Suspension of the Ethical" Requires Discernment

That which the Single One is to understand by Isaac, can be decided only by and for himself.

Kierkegaard's paradox. Kierkegaard's "teleological suspension of the ethical" suggests moral duties can be suspended for a higher purpose. However, this relativizes the ethical, making it dependent on personal interpretation.

Hearing the voice. The crucial question is discerning whose voice one hears: the Absolute or an ape of the Absolute. In our age, distinguishing between the two is exceedingly difficult.

Guarding against confusion. The new conscience must guard against confusing the relative with the Absolute, penetrating false absolutes with an incorruptible glance. This is perhaps the only way to reawaken the power to glimpse the never-vanishing appearance of the Absolute.

Last updated: March 14, 2025