Atheism for Lent - When Not to Refute Atheism: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud for Christian Reflection

Christian Study Center of Gainesville - When Not to Refute Atheism: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud for Christian Reflection

I'm a big Merold Westphal fan. This essay highlights his work on understanding the hermeneutics of suspicion found in such thinkers as Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche as actually useful to Christians. Westphal's understanding of postmodernism dwarfs what I read from most voices in the church, no matter where they uncritically embrace it or decry it as the enemy of the faith. Now the aforementioned "unholy" trio are enemies of the faith. How can we listen to their critiques and take them to heart?

I believe the final answer to this question is found in recognizing the profound parallel between the critique of religion in Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud and the critique of religion found in the Bible. Faith as fraud? Devotion as deception? These are strong charges, but modem atheism is not the first to make them. What about Amos, whose God cannot stand the music offered in his praise (Amos 5:23)? What about Isaiah (Second or Third), for whom “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isa. 64:6)? And what about Jesus, who considers the most pious people of his day “whitewashed tombs” (Matt. 23:27) and the temple run by the chief priests a “den of robbers” (Mark 11:17)?

Read the full article here.