Atheist Priest? Don Cupitt and Christianity

This first extended study of Don Cupitt's writings discusses them from his earliest articles up to and including The Long-Legged Fly, published in 1987. Such a survey is badly needed, the author argues, because so many of the attacks on Don Cupitt are misplaced and fail to see his ongoing project as a whole. Scott Cowdell divides Cupitt into 'the early Cupitt', up to Taking Leave of God; 'the later Cupitt', the writer of the trilogy consisting of Taking Leave of God, The World to Come and Only Human and of The Sea of Faith; and the most recent non-realist Cupitt of The Long-Legged Fly. While sympathetic to Don Cupitt's works Scott Cowdell is by no means uncritical, and makes some important objections, particularly to Cupitt's rejection of alternative approaches: 'there are more thing in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in his philosophy'. But at least, he argues, Don Cupitt is honest in his assertions; there are other theologians in effect just as radical who conceal their radical character in an obscurantist haze. Don Cupitt has written a Foreword, and there is a full bibliography of his writings.