{{Short description|English philosopher and academic (1934–2025)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Use British English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox academic | name = Don Cupitt | birth_date = {{Birth date|1934|5|22|df=y}} | birth_place = Oldham, Lancashire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|1|18|1934|5|22|df=y}} | death_place = Cambridge, England | occupation = {{Hlist|Philosopher|academic}} | education = Charterhouse School | alma_mater = Trinity Hall, Cambridge<br>Westcott House, Cambridge | sub_discipline = Christian theology | discipline = Philosopher of religion | notable_works = ''The Sea of Faith'' | workplaces = Emmanuel College, Cambridge | website = {{URL|https://doncupitt.chi.ac.uk/}} | period = 1959–2025 | children = 3 | spouse = {{Marriage|Susan Day|1963}} | image = Don Cupitt.jpg | caption = Cupitt in 1970 }}
'''Don Cupitt''' (22 May 1934 – 18 January 2025) was an English philosopher of religion and academic of Christian theology. He had been an Anglican priest and a lecturer in the University of Cambridge, though he was better known as a popular writer, broadcaster and commentator. He was described as a "radical theologian", noted for his ideas about "non-realist" philosophy of religion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Edmonds |first1=David |author-link1=David Edmonds (philosopher) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OCnr3IbHfS4C&q=Don+Cupitt+non-realist&pg=PT228 |title=Philosophy Bites |last2=Warburton |first2=Nigel |author-link2=Nigel Warburton |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-969466-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=191–200}}</ref><ref name="tilby">{{Cite web |last=Tilby |first=Angela |author-link=Angela Tilby |date=15 March 2019 |title=Don Cupitt – a spiritual sceptic |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/15-march/comment/columnists/angela-tilby-don-cupitt-a-spiritual-sceptic |access-date=15 March 2019 |website=Church Times}}</ref>
==Biography== Cupitt was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England, on 22 May 1934, son of Robert and Norah Cupitt.<ref>{{cite book|title=Who's Who, 2017|publisher=A and C Black, London|page=550|isbn=978-1-472-913609}}</ref> He was educated at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey; Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated as a B.A. in 1955 and M.A. in 1958;<ref name="crockford">{{cite book |title=Crockford's Clerical Directory for 2016–2017 |date=1 December 2015 |publisher=Church House Publishing |isbn=978-0-7151-1101-7 |series=Crockford's Clerical Directory |publication-place=London |page=211}}</ref> and Westcott House, Cambridge.<ref>{{Cite interview |last=Cupitt |first=Don |interviewer=Paul Merchant |title=Oral history of British science: Cupitt, Don (1 of 5). Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum. Life Story Interviews |type=Audio |url=https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science/021M-C1672X0020XX-0001V0 |access-date=23 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205212118/https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science/021M-C1672X0020XX-0001V0 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |url-status=dead |publisher=British Library Sounds |date=May–June 2016}}</ref> He studied, successively, natural sciences, theology and the philosophy of religion. In 1959, he was ordained deacon in the Church of England, becoming a priest in 1960. After serving as a curate in the parish of St Philip's and St Stephen's in Salford from 1959 to 1962,<ref name=crockford/> his radical views and beliefs forced him out of church ministry as he could not and would not hold to or teach universal Christian doctrine.{{cn|date=September 2025}} His views more closely followed that of an atheist seeking to live a morally good life, separate from any belief in, or need of, a relationship with God.<ref name=tilby />
While vice-principal of Westcott House, Cupitt was elected to a fellowship and appointed dean at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, late in 1965. Thenceforth he remained at the college. In 1968, he was appointed to a university teaching post in philosophy of religion, a position in which he continued until his retirement for health reasons in 1996. At that time he proceeded to a life fellowship at Emmanuel College, which remained his base until his death. In the early 1990s, he stopped officiating at public worship and in 2008, he ceased to be a communicant member of the Church of England.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Revd Don Cupitt {{!}} Fellows & Researchers |url=https://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/about/contact/fellows/?id=26 |access-date=23 January 2024 |website=Emmanuel College, Cambridge}}</ref>
Though he had been a priest, he was better known as a writer, broadcaster and populariser of innovative theological ideas. He wrote 40 books—which have been translated into Dutch, Persian, Polish, Korean, Portuguese, Danish, German and Chinese—as well as chapters in more than 30 multi-authored volumes.
Cupitt came to the British public's attention in 1984 with his BBC television series ''The Sea of Faith'', in which orthodox Christian beliefs were challenged. The series took its title from Matthew Arnold's poem ''Dover Beach'', which reflected on the decline of faith. Cupitt was a key figure in the Sea of Faith Network, a group of spiritual "explorers" (based in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia) who shared Cupitt's concerns. Prompted by the series, Giles Fraser sought a meeting with Cupitt, which led Fraser from atheism to Christian faith and ordination in the Church of England.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Dawson|first=Rosie|date=15 March 2019|title=Dear Mr Cupitt|work=Church Times|url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/15-march/features/features/dear-mr-cupitt|access-date=8 August 2021}}</ref>
After he began writing in 1971, Cupitt's views continued to evolve and change.<ref name="nigel leaves">{{cite book |last=Leaves |first=Nigel |title=Odyssey on the Sea of Faith: The Life & Writings of Don Cupitt |publisher=Polebridge Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0944344620 |location=Santa Rosa, California |pages=1}}</ref> In his early books such as ''Taking Leave of God'' and ''The Sea of Faith'' Cupitt spoke of God alone as non-real,<ref name="Don Cupitt on Non-Realism About God">{{cite AV media|last1=Cupitt |first1=Don |date=2008-11-30 |series=Episode #86 |url=https://philosophybites.com/podcast/don-cupitt-on-non-realism-about-god/ | title=Don Cupitt on Non-Realism about God (with transcript) | interviewer-last1= Warburton |interviewer-first1= Nigel |website=Philosophy Bites |type= podcast |format=mp3 |access-date=2026-02-27}}</ref> but by the end of the 1980s, he moved into postmodernism, describing his position as "empty radical humanism":<ref name="About Non-Realism">{{Cite web |last=Cupitt |first=Don |date=12 February 2012 |title=The Non-Realism of Don Cupitt |url=http://www.doncupitt.com/non-realism |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527155118/https://www.doncupitt.com/non-realism |archivedate=27 May 2022 |accessdate=19 January 2025 |publisher=}}</ref> that is, "[T]here is nothing but our language, our world, and the meanings, truths and interpretations that we have generated. Everything is non-real, including God".<ref name="hyman">{{cite book |last=Hyman |first=Gavin |author-link=Gavin Hyman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VuXIL7amXvIC |title=The Predicament of Postmodern Theology: Radical Orthodoxy or Nihilist Textualism? |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0664223663 |location=Louisville, Kentucky |pages=44–49}}</ref>
In his writings, Cupitt sometimes described himself as a Christian non-realist, meaning that he followed certain spiritual practices and attempted to live by ethical standards traditionally associated with Christianity but without believing in the actual existence of the underlying metaphysical entities (such as "Christ" and "God"). He termed this way of being a non-realist Christian "solar living".
thumb|Cupitt in 2014
Cupitt married Susan Day in 1963 and the couple had three children.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=20 January 2025 |title=The Rev Don Cupitt, radical 'Sea of Faith' churchman who blazed a trail for Christian atheism |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/01/20/the-rev-don-cupitt-church-of-england-theology-sea-of-faith/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=23 January 2025 |work=The Telegraph |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> He died at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge following a short illness on 18 January 2025, at the age of 90.<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 January 2025 |title=Don Cupitt 1934–2025 |url=https://doncupitt.chi.ac.uk/don-cupitt-1934-2025/ |access-date=19 January 2025 |website=Don Cupitt}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wallace |first=Jane |date=20 January 2025 |title=The Reverend Don Cupitt, 1934-2025 |url=https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news/reverend-don-cupitt-1934-2025 |access-date=23 January 2025 |website=Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge}}</ref>
==Quotations== Cupitt has an entry in the 8th edition of ''The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations'': "Christmas is the Disneyfication of Christianity."<ref>''The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations'' (8th ed.). p. 250.</ref><ref>''The Independent''. 19 December 1996.</ref>
"I take the idea of God as something like a guiding spiritual ideal that you use to orientate your life by, God is our values, God symbolises the goal of spiritual life.”<ref>Told to the Guardian in 1987. {{cite news |last1=Bates |first1=Stephen |title=The Rev Don Cupitt |access-date=31 January 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=31 January 2025 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/26/the-rev-don-cupitt-obituary|ref=p7}}</ref>
==Books== (Partial list) *''Crisis of Moral Authority: The Dethronement of Christianity'', Lutterworth Press, 1972, {{ISBN|0-7188-1924-1}} *''Who was Jesus?'' (London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1977). With Peter Armstrong. *''The Debate About Christ.'' SCM Press, 1979 {{ISBN|0-334-00303-2}} *''Taking Leave of God'', SCM Press, 1980, 2001 edition: {{ISBN|0-334-02840-X}} *''The Sea of Faith'', BBC Books, 1984, Cambridge University Press 1988 edition: {{ISBN|0-521-34420-4}} *''The Long-Legged Fly: A Theology of Language and Desire'', SCM Press, 1987 {{ISBN|0-334-00926-X}} *''The Time Being'', SCM Press, 1992, {{ISBN|0-334-02522-2}} *''After All: Religion Without Alienation'', SCM Press, 1994, {{ISBN|0-334-00036-X}} *''After God: The Future of Religion'', Basic Books, 1997, {{ISBN|0-465-04514-6}} *''Mysticism After Modernity'', Blackwell Publishers, 1998, {{ISBN|0-631-20763-5}} *''The Religion of Being'', SCM Press, 1998, {{ISBN|0-334-02731-4}} *''The New Religion of Life in Everyday Speech'', SCM Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-334-02763-2}} *''Reforming Christianity'', Polebridge Press, 2001, {{ISBN|0-944344-82-8}} *''Emptiness & Brightness'', Polebridge Press. 2001, {{ISBN|0-944344-87-9}} *''Is Nothing Sacred?: The Non-Realist Philosophy of Religion'' (selected essays), Fordham University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-8232-2203-9}} *''The Way To Happiness: A Theory of Religion'', Polebridge Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-944344-53-4}} *''The Old Creed and the New'', SCM Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-334-04053-1}} *''Radical Theology'', Polebridge Press, 2006: {{ISBN|0-944344-97-6}} *''Impossible Loves'', Polebridge Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-59815-001-8}} *''Above Us Only Sky'', Polebridge Press, 2008, {{ISBN|1-59815-011-1}} *''The Meaning of the West'', SCM Press, 2008, {{ISBN|0-334-04202-X}} *''Jesus and Philosophy'', SCM Press, 2009, {{ISBN|0-334-04338-7}}
==See also== *Christian atheism *Death of God *Lloyd Geering *Nontheism *Postchristianity *Post-theism
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *''Holding Fast to God: A Reply to Don Cupitt'', Keith Ward, Abingdon Press, 1990, {{ISBN|0-687-85476-8}} *''The Predicament of Postmodern Theology: Radical Orthodoxy or Nihilist Textualism?'', Gavin Hyman, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001 *''Odyssey on the Sea of Faith: The Life and Writings of Don Cupitt'', Nigel Leaves, Polebridge Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-944344-62-3}} *''Surfing on the Sea of Faith: The Ethics and Religion of Don Cupitt'', Nigel Leaves, Polebridge Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0-944344-63-1}} *''New Directions in Philosophical Theology: Essays in Honour of Don Cupitt'', Gavin Hyman (editor), Ashgate Publishing, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7546-5061-8}}
==External links== * {{Official website|https://doncupitt.chi.ac.uk/}} * [https://www.sofn.uk/ Sea of Faith Network] * {{IMDb name| 6461761}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20170826222948/http://hedgerleywood.org:80/empathymedia/don-cupitts-religious-journey/ Don Cupitt’s Religious Journey (archive)] on Empathy Media, 9 June 2016 video interview. * {{Cite interview |last=Cupitt |first=Don |interviewer=Alan Macfarlane |title=Don Cupitt |type=Video |url=https://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1115618/ |access-date=23 January 2025 |publisher=University of Cambridge |via=Streaming Media Service |date=16 February 2009}} * {{cite AV media|last1=Cupitt |first1=Don |date=2008-11-30 |series=Episode #86 |url=https://philosophybites.com/podcast/don-cupitt-on-non-realism-about-god/ | title=Don Cupitt on Non-Realism about God (with transcript) | interviewer-last1= Warburton |interviewer-first1= Nigel |website=Philosophy Bites |type= podcast |format=mp3 |access-date=2026-02-27}} * {{cite AV media|last1=Cupitt |first1=Don |date=2009-12-24 |series=Episode #115 |url=https://philosophybites.com/podcast/don-cupitt-on-jesus-as-philosopher/ | title=Don Cupitt on Jesus as a Philosopher (with transcript) | interviewer-last1= Warburton |interviewer-first1= Nigel |website=Philosophy Bites |type= podcast |format=mp3 |access-date=2026-02-27}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cupitt, Don}} Category:1934 births Category:2025 deaths Category:20th-century English Christian theologians Category:Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Category:20th-century English Anglican priests Category:Religious naturalists Category:People from Oldham Category:Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Category:People educated at Charterhouse School Category:Alumni of Westcott House, Cambridge Category:Staff of Westcott House, Cambridge Category:Members of the Jesus Seminar