„Death of the death of God”: Jean Luc Marion’s Apology against Nietzschean atheism

Nietzsche’s diagnosis of “death of God” influences contemporary philosophical atheism. He is coun- tered by Jean-Luc Marion with arguments that draws from the apophatic tradition of the Church for which the true God can not be reduced to a rational concept, without being turned into an idol. Trying to deny God, atheism always operates with a well defined concept, and this strictness is the strongest counterargument against it. This text presents the apologetic arguments that the French phenomenologist made against Nietzschean nihilism, against contemporary atheism which feeds from it and against the idol that takes the place of the living God. Marion demonstrates that through the “death of God” an idol of the divine dies, therefore it is the very “death of God” that dies.

Keywords: Jean-Luc Marion, apology, death of God, Nietzsche, atheism, nihilism, idol, teology