It has long been assumed that the more modern we become, the less religious we will be. Yet a recent resurrection in faith has challenged the certainty of this belief. In these original essays and interviews, leading hermeneutical philosophers and postmodern theorists John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo engage with each other's past and present work on the subject and reflect on our transition from secularism to postsecularism. As two of the figures who have contributed the most to the theoretical reflections on the contemporary philosophical turn to religion, Caputo and Vattimo explore the changes, distortions, and reforms that are a part of our postmodern faith and the forces shaping the religious imagination today. Incisively and imaginatively connecting their argument to issues ranging from terrorism to fanaticism and from politics to media and culture, these thinkers continue to reinvent the field of hermeneutic philosophy with wit, grace, and passion.

After the Death of God (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)

Politics & Social Sciences

Vattimo, Gianni

Caputo, John D.

Philosophy

Columbia University Press

If you no longer "believe in God," the Supreme Being of classical theology, or you never did in the first place, is there anything you still ought to believe, anything you should cherish unconditionally, no matter what? In this lively and accessible book, addressed to believers, "recovering" believers, disbelievers, nonbelievers, and "nones" alike--to anyone in search of what they really do believe--the acclaimed philosopher and theologian John D. Caputo seeks out what there is to believe, with or without religion. Writing in a lucid and witty style, Caputo offers a bold account of a "radical theology" that is anything but what the word theology suggests to most people. His point of departure is autobiographical, describing growing up in the world of pre-Vatican II Catholicism, serving as an altar boy, and spending four years in a Catholic religious order after high school. Caputo places Augustine's Confessions, Tillich's Dynamics of Faith, and Jacques Derrida and postmodern theory in conversation in the service of what he calls the "mystical sense of life." He argues that radical theology is not simply an academic exercise but describes a concrete practice immediately relevant to the daily lives of believers and nonbelievers alike. What to Believe? is an engaging introduction to radical theology for all readers curious about what religion can mean today.

What to Believe?: Twelve Brief Lessons in Radical Theology

Is anything ever not an interpretation? Does interpretation go all the way down? Is there such a thing as a pure fact that is interpretation-free? If not, how are we supposed to know what to think and do? These tantalizing questions are tackled by renowned thinker John D. Caputo in this wide-reaching exploration of what the traditional term "hermeneutics" can mean in a postmodern, 21st-century world. As a contemporary of Derrida's and longstanding champion of rethinking the disciplines of theology and philosophy, for decades Caputo has been forming alliances across disciplines and drawing in readers with his compelling approach to what he calls "radical hermeneutics." In this new introduction, drawing upon a range of thinkers from Heidegger to the Parisian "1968ers" and beyond, he raises a series of probing questions about the challenges of life in the postmodern and maybe soon to be "post-human" world.'

Hermeneutics: Facts and Interpretation in the Age of Information (Pelican Books)

Religion & Spirituality

Pelican

The Insistence of God: A Theology of Perhaps (Philosophy of Religion)

The Insistence of God presents the provocative idea that God does not exist, God insists, while God’s existence is a human responsibility, which may or may not happen. For John D. Caputo, God’s existence is haunted by "perhaps," which does not signify indecisiveness but an openness to risk, to the unforeseeable. Perhaps constitutes a theology of what is to come and what we cannot see coming. Responding to current critics of continental philosophy, Caputo explores the materiality of perhaps and the promise of the world. He shows how perhaps can become a new theology of the gaps God opens.

Indiana University Press

The Insistence of God presents the provocative idea that God does not exist, God insists, while God’s existence is a human responsibility, which may or may not happen. For John D. Caputo, God’s existence is haunted by "perhaps," which does not signify indecisiveness but an openness to risk, to the unforeseeable. Perhaps constitutes a theology of what is to come and what we cannot see coming. Responding to current critics of continental philosophy, Caputo explores the materiality of perhaps and the promise of the world. He shows how perhaps can become a new theology of the gaps God opens.

Cross and Cosmos: A Theology of Difficult Glory (Philosophy of Religion)

John D. Caputo stretches his project as a radical theologian to new limits in this groundbreaking book. Mapping out his summative theological position, he identifies with Martin Luther to take on notions of the hidden god, the theology of the cross, confessional theology, and natural theology. Caputo also confronts the dark side of the cross with its correlation to lynching and racial and sexual discrimination. Caputo is clear that he is not writing as any kind of orthodox Lutheran but is instead engaging with a radical view of theology, cosmology, and poetics of the cross. Readers will recognize Caputo's signature themes―hermeneutics, deconstruction, weakness, and the call―as well as his unique voice as he writes about moral life and our strivings for joy against contemporary society and politics.

Echoes of Trauma and Shame in German Families: The Post–World War II Generations

How is it possible for people who were born in a time of relative peace and prosperity to suddenly discover war as a determining influence on their lives? For decades to speak openly of German suffering during World War II--to claim victimhood in a country that had victimized millions--was unthinkable. But in the past few years, growing numbers of Germans in their 40s and 50s calling themselves Kriegsenkel, or Grandchildren of the War, have begun to explore the fundamental impact of the war on their present lives and mental health. Their parents and grandparents experienced bombardment, death, forced displacement, and the shame of the Nazi war crimes. The Kriegsenkel feel their own psychological struggles--from depression, anxiety disorders, and burnout to broken marriages and career problems--are the direct consequences of unresolved war experiences passed down through their families. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and a broad range of scholarship, Lina Jakob considers how the Kriegsenkel movement emerged at the nexus between public and familial silences about World War II, and critically discusses how this new collective identity is constructed and addressed within the framework of psychology and Western therapeutic culture.

Demythologizing Heidegger (Philosophy of Religion)

History

Europe

Specters of God: An Anatomy of the Apophatic Imagination

In Specters of God, John D. Caputo returns to the original impulse of his work, the "mystical element" in things, here under the name of an "anxious apophatics," as distinct from an "edifying apophatics" anchored in unity with God. In dialogue with Schelling, a new turn for him and the lynchpin of this argument, Caputo addresses the nocturnal powers in being, the specters that haunt our being and bring us up short. The result is an erudite and insightful analysis―in his usual lively and masterful style―of several key "spectral" figures from medieval angelology and Eckhart's Gottheit, through Luther's deus absconditus and Schelling's "Satanology," to the spectralization and virtualization of the world in the "posthuman" age. Arguing that the name of God is not the master name of a super-being who is going to save us but a placeholder for sources deep in our apophatic imaginary, he asks, Has "God" become a (holy) ghost of the past? A passing spectral effect of the ancient harmonies of the spheres? Does radical thinking culminate in a cosmopoetics beyond theism and its theology, in a doxology to the transient glory of the world, whatever it was in the beginning, however eerie its end, world without why?

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Caputo, John D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Caputo, John D.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Caputo, John D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

After the Death of God (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)

After the Death of God (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)

What to Believe?: Twelve Brief Lessons in Radical Theology

Hermeneutics: Facts and Interpretation in the Age of Information (Pelican Books)

The Insistence of God: A Theology of Perhaps (Philosophy of Religion)

The Insistence of God: A Theology of Perhaps (Philosophy of Religion)

Cross and Cosmos: A Theology of Difficult Glory (Philosophy of Religion)

Cross and Cosmos: A Theology of Difficult Glory (Philosophy of Religion)

Demythologizing Heidegger (Philosophy of Religion)

Specters of God: An Anatomy of the Apophatic Imagination