Christianity without God: Moving beyond the Dogmas and Retrieving the Epic Moral Narrative

by Daniel C. Maguire

Overview

Christianity without an omnipotent god, without a divine savior, without an afterlife? In this bold and hopeful book, theologian Daniel C. Maguire writes that traditional, supernatural aspects of Christianity can be comforting, but are increasingly questionable. A century of scholarly research has not been supportive of the dogmatic triad of personal god, incarnate savior, and life after death. Demonstrating that these beliefs have questionable roots in historical traditions, Maguire argues for a return to that brilliant and revolutionary moral epic of the Hebrew and Christian Bible. Rescued from god, Christianity can offer a realistic global ethic to heal a planet sinking under the effects of our ungrateful mismanagement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438454061
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	08/18/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	234
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Daniel C. Maguire is Professor of Ethics at Marquette University and the author or editor of many books, including (with Larry L. Rasmussen) Ethics for a Small Planet: New Horizons on Population, Consumption, and Ecology, also published by SUNY Press.

Table of Contents

Part I. God

1. Overture

2. Deification

3. Proliferation

4. The Beginning That Wasn’t

Part II. The Divinity of Jesus

5. The Greatest Story Never Told

6. From Jesus to Christ

7. From Christianity to Cross-tianity

Part III. The Living Dead

8. From Hell to Jiggledeegreen

Part IV. The Quest for a Global Ethic

9. When We Are as Remote as Charlemagne

10. Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?

11. From Prose to Poetry

12. When History Turned a Corner

Epilogue: The God Loss

Notes
Selected Annotated Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"…[a] well-thought case … Both atheists and theists will appreciate a revamped view of Christianity relevant to today's fraught world." — WATER

"Once again Dan Maguire's new book is at the cutting edge. Passionate, yet crystal clear, Christianity without God distills the essential Christian message from the mythological and theological accretions that have distorted it. It's a message we need today, more than ever." — David R. Loy, author of Awareness Bound and Unbound: Buddhist Essays

"For many of us, Maguire's book will be a kind of homecoming. Someone, at last, has had the courage to write what so many of us have been thinking." — John C. Raines, author of The Justice Men Owe Women: Positive Resources from World Religions

"With immense learning and considerable charm, Daniel Maguire evokes a Christianity freed from dogma, literalism, self-righteousness, and terror. Believers and skeptics alike can delight in what's left: poetry, morality, a sense of awe and wonder. In a word, humanity." — Katha Pollitt, author of The Mind-Body Problem: Poems

From the Publisher