A Reflection on Don Cupitt

Monday 3rd February 2025

Don Cupitt, who died on 18 January 2025, was the person who had the most influence on my religious life.

I first discovered his writing in the early 1990s when I was starting to explore my faith and beliefs. I was able to immediately relate to his theology of `non-realism` which answered the questions and doubts that I had been struggling with. At last, I had found someone who understood and had similar ideas to me although far better at articulating them.

I soon became a member of the Sea of Faith Network (SOF Network) and an attender of its annual conference where the highlight was always his keynote speech. He had the ability to talk at length about almost anything theological; not with any pride or arrogance but with a genuine desire to help others and inform their debate.

In his book `The Sea of faith` he defined a non-realist God as the sum of our values, representing to us their ideal unity, their claims on us, and their creative power.

In a later book `The Last Testament` he explored two messages from Jesus, the `solar` and the `catholic.` They exist side by side in Matthew’s sermon on the mount where at 5.13-16 the original `solar` Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth and should live expressively. Then at 6.1-21, the catholic Jesus tells them the opposite, giving to charities secretly etc. After his death, the catholic teaching won so that Cupitt quotes Nietzsche as saying that there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross.

Cupitt’s is an optimistic message that we should find the original Jesus and follow him, not the catholic, priest led religion which of course requires a hierarchy and power structure.

You can read the rest of Peter's reflection along with other tributes to Don Cupitt, in the next edition of Progressive Voices.