The death of God as a nuisance: in a profound essay, Norbert Bolz explores the “invention” of Christianity, which only found its world-historical form through Paul and his radical “Word of the Cross”. Modern society owes its emergence to this Pauline invention; Christianity itself set the history of secularization in motion – and thus its own deconstruction. Norbert Bolz follows the demystification of the world through the sciences and the secularization of Christian beliefs to finally state the “perversion of Christianity”: its decline is sealed by the attempt to adapt to the spirit of the times by abandoning dogma and orthodoxy and naively pursuing theological politics. But “anyone who believes they have to defend Christianity has never believed in Jesus Christ”. Consequently, Bolz does not defend Christianity against the practical life of Christianity; his theological reflection on Christianity first and foremost rehabilitates its original power, which challenges – and reverses – every value system.
Non-fiction
Norbert Bolz, born in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine in 1953, is a philosopher and communication scientist. He taught media studies at the TU Berlin until his retirement in 2018. His publications revolve around the topic of transformation in modern societies and the increasing insecurity of postmodern societies. Most recently published by Matthes & Seitz Berlin: No power of morals! (2021).
