Tom Altizer and William Blake: The Apocalypse of Belief

For the radical death of God theologian, Thomas J.J. Altizer, William Blake’s epic and prophetic poetry instigated a redemptive Christian vision. Altizer, writing in the 1960s in America, was concerned with finding a theology that suited his time, one that would participate in a reversal of the alie...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Freedman, Linda (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press 2011
In: Literature and theology
Year: 2011, Volume: 25, Issue: 1, Pages: 20-31
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
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Parallel Edition:Electronic
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Summary:For the radical death of God theologian, Thomas J.J. Altizer, William Blake’s epic and prophetic poetry instigated a redemptive Christian vision. Altizer, writing in the 1960s in America, was concerned with finding a theology that suited his time, one that would participate in a reversal of the alienation and dehumanisation he saw as the plague of his own highly technological and urban society. In Blake, he found not only a theology but also a vital poetics for theology; Blake was, for Altizer, a unique Christian visionary whose language and form created a new living myth, invaluable to the contemporary American theologian. This article discusses the importance of Blake’s poetics for Altizer’s radical apocalypse of belief and assesses the theological and literary stakes of his project.
ISSN:1477-4623
Contains:Enthalten in: Literature and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frq070