The American thinker Thomas J. J. Altizer (born 1927) had a major impact on theology in the last half of the 20th century. Best known as the exponent and developer of "the death of God," his work was little understood in his own time.

A descendant and namesake of Stonewall Jackson, Thomas J. J. Altizer was born September 28, 1927, in Cambridge, Massachusetts; his father was a distinguished attorney. He grew up in Charleston, West Virginia, and graduated there in 1944 from Stonewall Jackson High School. After one year at St. John's College he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Following Army service he enrolled in the College of the University of Chicago from which he graduated with honors in 1948. In 1951 he received the M.A. in theology at the divinity school and in 1955 the Ph.D. in history of religions at the Graduate School of the University of Chicago. His principal...