This article is a fictional letter. This "letter" is the fourth fictional letter published by the author. In each letter, I take on a different persona and address issues and questions of theological students at Princeton Seminary, all of whom I imagine to be in their early or mid-twenties, because that is when I attended Princeton Seminary (Carlin 2004, 2006a, b). By doing so, I am endorsing the introspective method in the psychology of religion, which I've learned from Donald Capps (1997). This letter is also a reflection on a passage found in the work Erik Erikson (1962), which is the below epigram. In this letter, a seminarian writes to his mother during his second year of seminary, shortly before Thanksgiving break. The purpose of his letter is to inform his mother-from whom he received his Christianity-about some of his latest thoughts, particularly about the doctrine of the atonement. He has come to believe that the doctrine is problematic for society and he seeks a way to (re) make Christianity into a force for good. Perhaps strangely, he concludes by calling for the death of God, apparently oblivious to this forgotten debate in theological circles. This article raises a number of questions, but perhaps most importantly this one: How far can we take the lament?.
