Galileo and Newton bequeathed us a universe which, in important respects, operated like clockwork. Then came the recognition that the earth, and life upon the earth, has an unimaginably long history. More controversially still, humanity has a long evolutionary history, one that links us back to the animal world. Then, most spectacularly for Western religion, came the assault on the traditional view of the Christian Scriptures. They too have a history, which historical Biblical criticism has in some degree untangled.
Later chapters take up the challenge from philosophy and the arts.
Finally, in the last chapter of the book, Cupitt presents his radical new view of religion. He argues that in this modern period the different visions that people hold of God not longer have any agreed external referent. He seems to be talking primarily about the God of the philosophers and theologians. We learn that all theology must now be non-realist. The closely policed nostalgic realist theology of the fundamentalists is an anachronism, a throwback to the past.