In his book The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche declares that God is dead. Passages 108 (New Battles), 125 (The Fool), 153 (Homo poeta), and 343 (How to Understand Our Cheerfulness) all deal with a particular aspect of this statement. Passage 108 states that God is dead but it may be a long time before we recognize Him. Passage 125 reiterates that God is dead and goes on to say that we have killed him. Passage 153 shows homo poeta taking guilty responsibility for the death of God. Passage 343 deals with the consequences of God's death and questions what will change. Through critical analysis and examination of these four passages, while building on classroom discussion, a more complete understanding of this quote is possible. Passage 108, “New Battles,” states: “God is dead; but given the nature of people, there may still be caves for millennia in which they show his shadow. In this passage, Nietzsche says that God is no longer a transcendent thing; that the definition of God was transformed in the mind of man into a physical God. Thus, God became present in the Universe. Although this does not explain how God died, it is an important argument that lays the foundation for the argument made by the "madman" in passage 125. Despite God's death, however, Nietzsche says that the followers of God will continue to preach the existence of God. maybe for a very long time. The concept of God becoming immanent, rather than transcendent, was discussed in some detail in class. In his article “Immanence and Transcendence”, Philip Léon defines an immanent God as “inside… the Universe” and defines a transcendent God as “supra machinam… Whatever happens, it's the same; it has neither beginning nor end; it is... middle of paper ... free thought to a degree that has never been accessible to us before. This will bring about a new era of enlightenment, so to speak. He concludes by saying: “the sea, our sea, is open again; perhaps there has never been such an open sea. » Works cited Horace. Satires, epistles, Ars Poetica. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1945. Leon, Philip. “Immanence and Transcendence.” Philosophy. 8. no. 29 (1993). Nietzsche, Friedrich. Gay science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.St. Anselm. Proslogium and Monologium. The Catholic Primer, http://www.catholicprimer.org/home/theologians/anselm (accessed November 20, 2011). The Pew Research Center. “Among wealthy nations...the United States stands alone in its adherence to religion.” The Pew Global Attitudes Project. .www.pewglobal.org/files/pdf/167.pdf (accessed November 21, 2011).