The Death & Rebirth of God: A spiritual perspective on the 21st century cultural crisis

 

Thur. May 18, 2017  7:00-8:30pm

-Free and open to the public-

 

When Nietzsche famously declared, "God is dead," near the dawn of the 20th century, he was pointing to the fact that life in the western world was increasingly being guided not by the religious worldview, but by the capitalist, materialist, individualist worldview of modern times.  Though many still went to church and considered themselves Christians, their faith was dwindling and their lives were increasingly not centered around Church doctrine, the teachings of Jesus, or a intimate relationship with God.

In this talk, Dr. David Thompson will trace the life-cycle of God in the Western worldview: the "birth" of God in our worldview, God's rise, climax, fall, and death in the 20th century.  Then, he will discuss how this spiritual trajectory has led to our current cultural/environmental crisis.

 

Dr. Thompson will then explore possible alternatives to the modern American worldview.  He will explore a number of different thinkers' perspectives, including those of Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, Meister Eckhart, Teilhard de Chardin, Nietzsche, Mircea Eliade, Ralph Waldo Emerson, as well as the traditions of Ecofeminism, Esoteric/Occult spirituality, and Process Theology.  Dr. Thompson will identify the key, central spiritual assumptions these perspectives share in hopes that this will clarify and strengthen the development of a newly emerging worldview that has the potential to rectify the problematic course our culture is on.