John T. Elson dies at 78; Time writer posed question ‘Is God dead?’
John T. Elson, whose 1966 cover story for Time magazine—provocatively titled “Is God Dead?”—produced record-breaking newsstand sales with its perceptive analysis of a debate that animated Sunday churchgoers as well as theologians, died Sept. 7 at his home in New York City. He was 78.
Elson had emphysema and heart problems, said his wife, Rosemary.
During four decades at Time, Elson edited or wrote for every department except business. He was religion editor when he undertook an assignment to examine the arguments of a small group of radical theologians that churches, in Elson’s words, “must accept the fact of God’s death, and get along without him.”
After 43 years the debate about the existence of “god” continues to this day. The systematic study of religion by critics of biblical myth and history seem to be opening up the discussion. Thanks for John T. Elston contribution to the on going dialogue.
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