Men without God

The Gods of Atheism By Vincent P. Miceli S.J. Arlington, 490 pp., $12.50 Men, sinful men, “fallen” men—that is, all men in history—have always been in revolt against God, because (and this is the essential mark of their sinfulness, their “fallenness”) they have always exhibited a virtually unconquerable reluctance to acknowledge their own creatureliness and an equally unconquerable urge to organize life and reality around themselves as center, individually or collectively. But this revolt has taken many forms and a variety of expressions. In his delusions of self-sufficiency, man has tended to make his vitality, his reason, his cultural creativity, even his religion, into a vehicle of his frantic straining for absolute autonomy against God; and, almost always, he has implemented this urge toward self-absolutization by projecting some part or aspect of his humanness as the ultimate reality to be exalted and adored. Man’s vitality becomes The Life-Force, his truth becomes The Truth, and so on.

In thus proceeding, man, in recent times usually collective man, betrays, at one and the same time, his metaphysical need—without some absolute, he cannot live or think—and his inner drive to self-exaltation. He is always manufacturing his own idols to suit his intellectual, spiritual and cultural predilections. This is the perennial condition of man, not merely today or yesterday, but through the succession of ages that marks his career in history.

WH

About the Author

Will Herberg

Featured Tags

The Gods of Atheism By Vincent P. Miceli S.J. Arlington, 490 pp., $12.50 Men, sinful men, “fallen” men—that is, all men in history—have always been in revolt against God, because (and this is the essential mark of their sinfulness, their “fallenness”) they have always exhibited a virtually unconquerable reluctance to acknowledge their own creatureliness and an equally unconquerable urge to organize life and reality around themselves as center, individually or collectively. But this revolt has taken many forms and a variety of expressions. In his delusions of self-sufficiency, man has tended to make his vitality, his reason, his cultural creativity, even his religion, into a vehicle of his frantic straining for absolute autonomy against God; and, almost always, he has implemented this urge toward self-absolutization by projecting some part or aspect of his humanness as the ultimate reality to be exalted and adored. Man’s vitality becomes The Life-Force, his truth becomes The Truth, and so on.

In thus proceeding, man, in recent times usually collective man, betrays, at one and the same time, his metaphysical need—without some absolute, he cannot live or think—and his inner drive to self-exaltation. He is always manufacturing his own idols to suit his intellectual, spiritual and cultural predilections. This is the perennial condition of man, not merely today or yesterday, but through the succession of ages that marks his career in history.