A tribute to the Rev Don Cupitt (22.05.1934 – 18.01.2025)
Don Cupitt was initiator of the Sea of Faith Network in the UK, which led to similar networks in New Zealand and Australia. The phrase ‘Sea of Faith’, taken from a Matthew Arnold poem, was used for his 1984 BBC series and book. Six episodes focus on individual theologians from Pascal to Nietzsche and Cupitt explores the changing character and influence of Christianity. It remains a masterclass.
Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Cupitt studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge before pursuing studies in philosophy and religion. He attended the Anglican training college, Westcott House, and was ordained in 1959. After his curacy, he returned to Westcott House as vice-principal, then to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he became dean and life fellow. His subsequent progressive direction as a philosopher of religion took him ever further beyond the acceptable boundaries of the Church of England.
During my own theological studies in Birmingham, I was aware of his contribution to The Myth of God Incarnate (1977), edited by John Hick (then Edward Cadbury Professor at Birmingham), with contributions from other Birmingham-based theologians, Michael Goulder and Frances Young (my professor in 1990). The book provoked controversy and revealed the huge gap between the theology pursued by many academics and that presented to people in the pews. It is perhaps this credibility gap that has led to the rapid decline in church attendance since the 1960s.
Significant publications which illustrate the progress of his developing thought are Taking Leave of God (1980), The Long-legged Fly (1987), Solar Ethics (1995), After God (1997), the trilogy of “Everyday Speech” books (1999-2000), Theology’s Strange Return (2010), and Ethics in the Last Days of Humanity (2015).
After God is a logical and lucid presentation of the history of religion and its possible future. The trilogy written just before the turn of the millennium arose from the premise that what people really believe is encapsulated in the phrases of everyday speech – as Wittgenstein had suggested. Since at least Taking leave of God, Cupitt has regarded 'God' as a metaphor. And yet he continued to write wittily and cogently about religion. He retained an allegiance to the radical teaching of Jesus, but not to the Church. I remember being surprised to see him joining us in the chapel of my Birmingham theological college in 1990: he ceased officiating as an Anglican minister around that time and he effectively left the Church in 2008.
From a New Zealand perspective, it is remarkable that Lloyd Geering was writing books on similar themes with similar titles, unbeknown to both of them, long before they met. Their joint legacy is important as an attempt to provide a corrective to the disaster of the increasing narrowness of religion in this century.
Adrian Skelton
Napier
Editor’s Comment
My thanks to Adrian for this excellent and succinct summary of Don Cupitt’s life. He is indeed of enormous significance for us in SOFiA and could well be regarded as the founding father of the Sea of Faith, except that Don himself would probably regard such a description as irredeemably patriarchal!
The Christchurch group for a number of years began each year by listening to one of the BBC TV series on ‘The Sea of Faith’. It was an excellent way of reminding us of what we stood for. (They are now all available on youtube.com) When I first watched the series, it was the undermining of traditional religion that dominated my impression. On re-watching it, I noticed that usually there were two representatives of the new thinking that followed such undermining, inviting further debate.
I have three of Don Cupitt’s books and the one that made the biggest Impression was Radical Christians and the Future of the Church. His basic thesis is that the period of liberal thinking (beginning roughly with Schleiermacher at the beginning of the 19th Century) is now over and we are faced with a far more radical undermining of traditional religion. Liberals think that the existing church can be credibly modernised to bring it up to date but radicals like Cupitt find that modernity is much more deeply subversive of tradition. The church recognises this so has turned its back on the modernising project and radicals cannot expect to receive any sympathy.