Godforsakenness: Is Christian Unbelief Possible?

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the phenomenon of Godforsakenness viewed from philosophical and theological perspectives. The article presents the conception of the experience of Godforsakenness as a key element in fi nding spiritual reconciliation. Attention is focused on the fact that belief is impossible without (the despair of ) Godforsakenness, the collapse of meaning, and the cry to God for help. Having compared the thoughts of A. Camus and С. S. Lewis, we will argue that the suff ering of a human being appears in the centre of comprehension for both. The combination of critical positions of Albert Camus and С. S. Lewis provides the ground for asserting that both theology and philosophy, when it comes to the experience of Godforsakenness, mean the same thing but conceptualise it diff erently. Refl ections pivot around the fact that every person is constantly in search of God, and that most often this path is a sinuous curve: from unbelief to belief, etc. We call these transitions within the state of Godforsakenness the experience of being ‘without God’. Awareness of this makes it possible to regard atheism not only as a secular phenomenon but also as a theological problem that signals a disturbed balance in the faith in its quest for the living God, rather than for attractive theological formulas.