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Concepts of the secular in the radical theology of the 1960s: G. Vahanian and T. Altizer
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Ilya Olegovich Myazin
Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
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Submitted:
May 12, 2026
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Abstract.
The study aims to reveal conceptual differences in the interpretations of the secular in the works of G. Vahanian and T. J. J. Altizer, key representatives of the radical theology of the 1960s. The article analyzes the cultural, philosophical, and theological prerequisites of Death of God theology, examines the interpretations of the secular by both authors, and provides a comparison based on the ontological status of the “death of God” formula, the understanding of the secular as a mode of relating God, the world, and man, and the attitude towards religious tradition. Special attention is paid to the distinction between secularity and secularism in Vahanian’s thought and the onto-kenotic interpretation of immanence in Altizer’s work. The scientific novelty lies in constructing an internal typology of radical theology, which conceptually differentiates between the cultural-critical and onto-kenotic models of understanding the secular, which differ in their principle of correlating transcendence and immanence rather than in their degree of radicalism. As a result, it is established that for Vahanian, the secular acts as a desacralized space of responsibility and a condition for purifying faith from religious idols, whereas for Altizer, it appears as a consequence of the irreversible kenosis of the transcendent God in the Incarnation; thus, the “death of God” formula functions in two conceptual modes – as a cultural-hermeneutic diagnosis and as an ontological event.
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Key words and phrases:
радикальная теология
теология смерти Бога
концепция секулярного
постметафизическое мышление
десакрализация мира
radical theology
Death of God theology
concept of the secular
post-metaphysical thinking
desacralization of the world
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