From Almighty God to the Father of Mercy

the post-theistic image of God and the thought of Pope Francis

Abstract

In this text we will reflect on the main post-theistic argument, which is the need to overcome the concept of Theós and, consequently, the overcoming of religion. Our reference for this reflection is the book Después de Dios – otro modelo es posible. This book  offers us a wide reflection about that post-theism, and bringing together the thoughts of several theologians, from different post-theistic perspectives. In addition to the arguments in favor, it is also interesting to explain the criticism about the post-theism. For this way, we take as a reference a text by the Italian theologian Beatrice Iacopini entitled The proposal for an adult Christianity: a look at post-theism, in which the main criticism refers to the “dismantling” of the foundations of Christianity in modernity. as a consequence of the proposal to overcome theism. Finally, we take as a reference the thoughts of Pope Francis, we will highlight that the image of God criticized by post-theists, is one of the many faces of God that make up the Christian religious experience. In his writings, Francisco emphasizes that God is, above all, Mercy. Our objective throughout this text is to highlight that the image of the Almighty God, although it is the one that predominated as the substrate of all religious experience, is not the only face of God, on the contrary, He is multifaceted. It is possible to relate to a God who is the Father of Love and Mercy. These are all also images of God that surround the experience with God.