Abstract
Adorno’s post-World War II statement that ‘No spirit exists’, posited at the conclusion of an essay, provides a crucial window into considerations of modern atheism as well as contemporary anatheism. His utterance occurs historically about half-way between Nietzsche’s infamous declaration of the death of God and these two modern phenomena. His short sentence draws some of its meaning from its immediate context (his essay against occultism), but also from its broader context, the Hegelian notion of the World Spirit. Most significantly, though, it is a highly prescient insight, baldly formulated, and arguably more far-reaching than the madman’s ‘God is dead.’ References are made to various thinkers in the past two hundred years to elucidate some of the possible nuances of Adorno’s statement. Both modern atheism and contemporary anatheism can be illuminated as pivoting around Adorno’s shrewd observation.