Death or hiddeness of God? Philosophical-theological context of this problem

The paper presents the different ways of the interpretation of the thesis of “death of God” (F. Nietzsche). It shows that we should understand this phrase not as killing of God but rather as his “hiddeness”. The paper has two parts: philosophical and theological. The philosophical “hiddeness of God” has three dimensions: ontological (Heidegger – subjective supernatural zone; Tillich – mystery of God), ethical (Hegel – God as moral ideal; Sartre and Buber – objectifying of man; Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre – secularization and nihilism) and epistemological (Heidegger – lack of adequacy of concepts in description of God; Tillich – symbolism of expressions). The theological “hiddeness” has four dimensions: mystical (Luter, Barth – God hides his nature and will; Hamilton – concern for the right image of God; Vahanian, Tracy – apophatism), ontological (Altizer – immanence of God), ethical (Hamilton, Tracy, Guttierez, Johnson – presence in poor people; Van Buren – ideal of humanity) and epistemological (Cox, Van Buren – concepts without empirical sense)