Religious Crisis In United States In 20th Century:Theology Of "Death Of God"

Radical theology, which is known also as theology of "Death of God", has specific importance in context of continuous change of western civilization and culture in 20th century. The theology of "Death of God"’or the radical theology indicates the crisis of religious consciousness in the Western world, expresses its religious and philosophical specific attitude and shows its specific theological approach to find a salvation of this crisis-transition period. It gives an actuality to this thesis to evaluate the importance of the theology of "Death of God" in the period of religious "emptiness" in 20th century as a theological and ideological alternative to overcome the crisis.Christianity, especially traditional Christianity is continuously ignoring our "mundane" world without paying attention to the changes that are happening in the world and in the human consciousness. Theologians couldn’t point out that modern people aren’t interested in the traditional view of Christian theology, that interprets our, "mundane" world as sinful or lower, secondary, and gives importance to another (celestial) world that is promised after death. Modern people are generally interested in real vital problems, so the approach of traditional Christian church to our world makes a danger for religion itself. Some provident theologians were aware, that the religion should turn to this world, take into consideration people’s problems to be able to give a hope, otherwise the religion will be self-eliminated and self-destructed.The first chapter gives a brief introduction of theology of "death of God", its common characteristics, indicates the environment where it was born and the question that were raised by radical theologians. Special attention was given to the historical and cultural background of the theological movement to emphasize the roots and reasons of its beginning. Although religious crisis was occurred at the same time in Europe and it was expressed in England and Germany, the main object for research was chosen United States of America due to its modern approach in the period of religious and ideological crisis, which has proved once again that USA is an outstanding country in Western civilization.The second chapter is about the essence and features of theology of "death of God". This chapter is devoted to the main questions that were risen by radical theologians:"Is really God dead" and "How it is possible". In this chapter are represented the features of "death of God" theology made by famous theologians Landgon Gilkey, Paul Wright, Harvey Cox and others. Finally, I have represented two theologians-Gabriel Vahanyan and Thomas Altizer, as they are known to be founders of "death of God" theology. Analyze of their scientific works gives an explanation of many details and helps to imagine the essence of radical theology.Conclusion summarizes the ideas of thesis, gives final characteristics of the movement, points the reasons of disappearance and evaluates its importance in religious development. Although the ideas of Gabriel Vahanyan and Thomas Altizer were utopian, the theology of "death of God" gave a positive and educational lesson for future theologians and people in general. It indicates and underlines the bankruptcy of liberal theology and the weakness of 20th century’s dominant-neo-orthodoxy.