This landmark collection features selected writings by John D. Caputo, one of the most creative and influential thinkers working in the philosophy of religion today. B Keith Putt presents 21 of Caputo's most significant contributions from his distinguished 40-year career. Putt's thoughtful editing and arrangement highlights how Caputo's multidimensional thought has evolved from radical hermeneutics to radical theology. A guiding introduction situates Caputo's corpus within the context of debates in the Continental philosophy of religion and exclusive interview with him adds valuable information about his own views of his work.

This book gathers the European reception of John. D. Caputo's proposal for a radical theology of our time. Philosophers and theologians from within Europe respond to Caputo's attempt to configure a less rigid, less dogmatic form of religion. These scholars, in turn, receive responses by Caputo. This volume so aims to strengthen the development of radical theology in Europe and abroad.

It is fascinating that in all the media reports and discussions of the church’s abuse of power in the early years of the twenty-first century, few if any seemed to notice that the accusation of the church’s misuse of power presupposed a shared understanding of the positive use of power within the church that had been violated. Rather than an interest in the sociological aspect of this question, this book examines the more ontological and normative aspects of it. That is, it investigates and discerns the foundational theological framework of culture and society and the location and purpose of the church within them. As a cultural force and societal institution, what does the church constructively bring to the human community?

This volume, now with a substantial new Introduction, represents one of the most lucid, compact and reliable introductions to Derrida and deconstruction available in any language. Responding to questions put to him at a roundtable held at Villanova University in 1994, Jacques Derrida leads the reader through an illuminating discussion of the central themes of deconstruction. Speaking in English and extemporaneously, Derrida takes up with unusual clarity and great eloquence such topics as the task of philosophy, the Greeks, justice, responsibility, the gift, community, and the messianic. Derrida refutes the charges of relativism that are often leveled at deconstruction by its critics and sets forth the profoundly affirmative and ethico-political thrust of his work. The roundtable is marked by an unusual clarity that continues into the second part of the book, in which one of Derrida’s most influential readers, John D. Caputo, elaborates upon Derrida’s comments and supplies material for further discussion. This edition also includes a substantial new Introduction by Caputo that discusses the original context of the book and traces the development of deconstruction since Derrida’s death in 2004, from the rise of new materialisms to return to religion. Long one of the most lucid and reliable introductions to Derrida and deconstruction available in any language, and an ideal volume for students, Deconstruction in a Nutshell will also prove illuminating for those already familiar with Derrida’s work.

Written in response to John Caputo's The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, this work gathers together cutting-edge theologians and philosophers to examine the relationship between Derridan deconstruction and religion. Containing a lengthy counter-response by Caputo, as well as an interview, Religion With/Out Religion will be required reading for all those involved in contemporary theological debate.

In this distinctive exploration of John D. Caputo's work, Štefan Štofaník traces Caputo's journey of philosophical discovery from his earlier, more conventional academic writings to his later, almost confessional works of weak theology and his deep engagement with Derrida. Štofaník draws upon Caputo's life story to help explain sudden shifts in Caputo's thinking, offers intricate readings of philosophical passages that have all too often been taken for granted, and joins in Caputo's effort to find a theology that can be trusted and that does not rely upon dogmatic and hierarchical authority. At the same time, Štofaník subtly disagrees with aspects of Caputo's view and turns to the work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry as a way to suggest that one cannot take leave of the tradition of theology as easily as Caputo thinks. At times, The Adventure of Weak Theology reads like a letter to Caputo, and Štofaník's own passion for theology, his deep understanding of Caputo's work, and his gift for writing makes this an immensely appealing book for both admirers and critics of Caputo.

This volume poses the question of the relationship between the two main influences on the though of John D. Caputo, one of the most well-known philosophers of religion working in North America today: Jacques Derrida and Jesus Christ. Given the seemingly abstract character of Derrida's account of the messianic, how can one reconcile deconstruction and the "concrete messianism: of Christianity, as Caputo tries to do over and over again? How can one hold together the love of a God willing to be crucified and the dry, desert kh(ra, which doesnt care? This collection of essays from the world-renowned scholars seeks to illuminate the difficulties inherent in this seemingly contradictory pair of influences. With his trademark wit and humor, Caputo responds to his interlocutors while clarifying his position on numerous matters of interest to the church and in the academy. In addition to dealing with the concern for issues of hermeneutics, phenomenology, and negative theology for which Caputo has become famous, these essays also evaluate Caputo's legacy in fields previously not thought to be affected by his "deconstructive" version of religion: feminism, sacramental theology, Analytic philosophy of religion, and Christology. Marko Zlomislic is a professor of philosophy at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Kitchener, Ontario. Neal DeRoo teaches in the philosophy department at Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario.

In this study, Calvin D. Ullrich argues for the political significance of the philosopher-theologian John D. Caputo's radical theology. Against the backdrop of present debates, the author traces the notions of 'sovereignty and event' by drawing on the political theology of Carl Schmitt and Caputo's evolving engagement with postmodern thought; from its genesis in Martin Heidegger to its deeply involved association with Jacques Derrida. Calvin D. Ullrich shows that contrary to some misleading interpretations of his religious deconstruction, Caputo has always held nascent political concerns which culminate in his radical theology. Writing for scholars working in contemporary philosophy and theology, this book offers one of the first major in-depth analyses covering Caputo's writings of the last four decades, and seeks to defend their relevance for discussions responding to ongoing political-theological challenges.

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?

Through informative, original, and incisive case studies in postmodern economics, philosophy, literary criticism, feminism, pedagogy, poetry, painting, historiography, and cultural studies, this book demonstrates that disorganization and disaggregation characterize postmodern times. Postmodern phenomena, Leitch argues, resemble imploded geological formations with historical strata in kaleidoscopic disarray, and that neither economics, nor politics, nor culture escapes this novel form. Among the influential figures analyzed are Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, John Caputo, Jacques Derrida, Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar, Henry Giroux, Stanley Aronowitz, Linda Hutcheon, Fredric Jameson, J. Hillis Miller, Pentti Saarikoski, and Julian Schnabel.