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Theology for the People
Hopeloos hoopvol: bekentenissen van een postmoderne pelgrim
In 'Hopeloos hoopvol' beschrijft John D. Caputo (1940) zijn spirituele reis van het katholieke jongetje in de jaren vijftig dat graag naar de sterren staarde, tot de postmoderne filosoof 'na de dood van God' die ondanks alles blijft hopen op het koninkrijk van God.
Een religie zonder religie, Caputo is er al jaren naar op zoek, maar niet eerder beschreef hij dit zo persoonlijk en doorleefd als in dit boek. Hij noemt het de religie van de roos. Het is een religie waarin hij met Meester Eckhart bidt of God ons 'wil bevrijden van God'. Religie en beelden van God zijn algauw obstakels. Ze belemmeren om door te dringen tot het hart van religie.
'Hopeloos hoopvol' is een humoristisch, toegankelijk én diepgaand spiritueel werk van een toonaangevende filosoof. In de autobiografische stukken toont Caputo zich op z'n kwetsbaarst, in de theologische en filosofische fragmenten is hij op z'n scherpst.
PETER ROLLINS:
'Ik beveel dit werk bij u aan als een van de meest inspirerende en inzichtgevende teksten over de betekenis van geloven die ik ooit heb gelezen.'
JEAN-JACQUES SUURMOND:
'Een prachtig boek.'
RICK BENJAMINS:
'Het werk van John Caputo - een internationaal zeer vooraanstaande theoloog - is een grote hulp om na Kuitert en Hendrikse op een zinnige manier over God te blijven spreken.'
CATHERINE KELLER:
'Caputo vertelt zijn aangrijpende verhaal met zo'n avontuurlijke eerlijkheid en onweerstaanbare humor dat je niet kunt stoppen met lezen.'
VOLKSKRANT * * * * :
'Met (zelf)relativerende humor laveert [Caputo] tussen de genres poëzie, biografie, filosofie en theologie. ... Caputo's originele, open, experimentele, beeldenstormende, vloeibare en verontrustende denken doorbreekt alle traditionele kaders van geloof en ongeloof, theïsme en atheïsme.'
VOLZIN
'Een originele, baanbrekende en moedige denker, een bevlogen en spiritueel mens. Hulde aan de uitgever die dit boek in een soepele vertaling aan Nederlandse zinzoekers aanbiedt.'
Een religie zonder religie, Caputo is er al jaren naar op zoek, maar niet eerder beschreef hij dit zo persoonlijk en doorleefd als in dit boek. Hij noemt het de religie van de roos. Het is een religie waarin hij met Meester Eckhart bidt of God ons 'wil bevrijden van God'. Religie en beelden van God zijn algauw obstakels. Ze belemmeren om door te dringen tot het hart van religie.
'Hopeloos hoopvol' is een humoristisch, toegankelijk én diepgaand spiritueel werk van een toonaangevende filosoof. In de autobiografische stukken toont Caputo zich op z'n kwetsbaarst, in de theologische en filosofische fragmenten is hij op z'n scherpst.
PETER ROLLINS:
'Ik beveel dit werk bij u aan als een van de meest inspirerende en inzichtgevende teksten over de betekenis van geloven die ik ooit heb gelezen.'
JEAN-JACQUES SUURMOND:
'Een prachtig boek.'
RICK BENJAMINS:
'Het werk van John Caputo - een internationaal zeer vooraanstaande theoloog - is een grote hulp om na Kuitert en Hendrikse op een zinnige manier over God te blijven spreken.'
CATHERINE KELLER:
'Caputo vertelt zijn aangrijpende verhaal met zo'n avontuurlijke eerlijkheid en onweerstaanbare humor dat je niet kunt stoppen met lezen.'
VOLKSKRANT * * * * :
'Met (zelf)relativerende humor laveert [Caputo] tussen de genres poëzie, biografie, filosofie en theologie. ... Caputo's originele, open, experimentele, beeldenstormende, vloeibare en verontrustende denken doorbreekt alle traditionele kaders van geloof en ongeloof, theïsme en atheïsme.'
VOLZIN
'Een originele, baanbrekende en moedige denker, een bevlogen en spiritueel mens. Hulde aan de uitgever die dit boek in een soepele vertaling aan Nederlandse zinzoekers aanbiedt.'
240 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2015
24 people are currently reading
225 people want to read
About the author
John D. Caputo
96 books147 followersJohn D. Caputo is an American philosopher who is the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus at Syracuse University and the David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Villanova University. Caputo is a major figure associated with Postmodern Christianity, Continental Philosophy of Religion, as well as the founder of the theological movement known as weak theology. Much of Caputo's work focuses on hermeneutics, phenomenology, deconstruction and theology.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
June 23, 2017
Last year, I read Silence, a classic Japanese novel of historical fiction by Shūsakū Endo. Earlier this year, I read David Peters' short confession, reflection, and encouragement on surviving war and a shattered faith in Post Traumatic God. Now this book, Hoping Against Hope by John Caputo, is the third book since losing my belief and theism nearly a year and a half ago in which I experience God.
This is not to say that I now believe. But I do, in reading this book, feel a special relief and freedom from some remnants of the need to believe that still remain. In this freedom, I experience God. Before reading this book, and since my loss of belief, I have frequently repeated the phrase that God is Dead. I may repeat it again one day. But not now. In the moments after reading this book, I prefer to simply say that God is. I do not say God exists, nor that God lives. Yet somehow, in this book, and in this moment, God is.
I do not have belief. I could not say that I have faith. It is too misunderstood a word. I would suggest that to say I have trust is close. But this isn't quite right. I hope. And in this hope I experience God. I experience God, though I do not believe and though God does not exist.
This is the best book I have read this year. I am taking deep breaths of desperately longed for freedom from something nearly unexplainable in its abstract weight and pressure. I do not expect all those without belief to understand. But to have belief from childhood into middle age, and then to lose it, is something profound. I have been in grief since its loss. This book was one more step in my letting go of God. And in this letting go of God, I experience God.
I live in that moment on the cross where Jesus cries out that God has forsaken him. Yet I am free of the anguish implied in that moment.
In that moment that Abraham lifts the knife above Isaac's head, he is ready to abandon the promised future for which he had given everything, rendering it all without a reason. But what if reason, what if reward and consequence were removed from his obedience? All that would be left is the gift of his now.
Imagine there's no heaven.
There is no eternal consequence, no eternal reward. And without both, we are freed from debt and obligation. Every gift of grace may now be experienced, celebrated and enjoyed in the present, without why. Thus is grace become truly unconditional. And in this unconditional grace, I experience God.
And I am called to live for this unconditional grace. In this beautiful now, in which every one of those gifts may break through something that ought to be without any purpose, an accident that ends in an icy entropic death, I experience God.
Freed from the existence of God, every molecule in every moment is a beauty and a wonder.
Every opportunity to relieve or lessen suffering is a gift.
Every step taken toward justice in a universe headed to nothingness is an act of audacious hope. In this, I experience God.
I may be asked, as Caputo is asked in this book, why I would call this God at all. With Caputo, I must insist. Born into a world in which God is assumed, I have no better word to describe this experience in being. Others may not. I may not one day. But it works for me, born as I was to whom I was. And in this word, this name, so much is redeemed to me.
In my early twenties, I wrote a short poem that came to me many times as I read this book. It follows here.
The flower,
the butterfly,
and the violin
do not know
that perhaps in their lifetime
they will be loved
for nothing they have done
but only for the gift that they are
When I wrote that poem, I admit that I imagined a lover bestowing love upon them. In this love was their value.
The flower was uniquely significant. I was moved by the thought of some flower on a mountain, one that blooms and dies, never having been appreciated by a conscious living being. Somehow, I imagined that the presence of a supernatural force would make even this insignificant flower meaningful.
It's a nice thought.
But how much deeper an unconditional grace is it for that flower to bloom without the why of an outside lover. The finite life of this flower, blooming on its own without any being to appreciate its beauty, needs no excuse. Even without pollination and reproduction, the beauty of the flower is enough, contained in its own time. Without why.
And thus is this beautiful flower of a universe in which we now are.
And in the profound realization of the beauty of this immediate, passing, and mortal moment, I experience God. I experience God as mortal, as finite, as nonexistent. Yet, I do.
And I do not believe.
And I am without debt.
And I am without reward.
And I hope.
Thank you for this book.
I recommend this book to any former believer still grieving their loss of belief. I recommend it to any seeking atheist, who wishes to remain both.
Finally, I want to also say that I read The Weakness of God by John Caputo last year, and found it a very difficult and tedious read. This book has opened up my understanding of that far denser work. Though I cannot recommend Weakness to anyone but serious students of philosophy, I just want to assure potential readers that this book is different. Caputo takes on a far more conversational and accessible style in Hoping Against Hope. It is a well cited book with an impressive bibliography, and rigorously argued. But it is also very readable. Dig in.
This is not to say that I now believe. But I do, in reading this book, feel a special relief and freedom from some remnants of the need to believe that still remain. In this freedom, I experience God. Before reading this book, and since my loss of belief, I have frequently repeated the phrase that God is Dead. I may repeat it again one day. But not now. In the moments after reading this book, I prefer to simply say that God is. I do not say God exists, nor that God lives. Yet somehow, in this book, and in this moment, God is.
I do not have belief. I could not say that I have faith. It is too misunderstood a word. I would suggest that to say I have trust is close. But this isn't quite right. I hope. And in this hope I experience God. I experience God, though I do not believe and though God does not exist.
This is the best book I have read this year. I am taking deep breaths of desperately longed for freedom from something nearly unexplainable in its abstract weight and pressure. I do not expect all those without belief to understand. But to have belief from childhood into middle age, and then to lose it, is something profound. I have been in grief since its loss. This book was one more step in my letting go of God. And in this letting go of God, I experience God.
I live in that moment on the cross where Jesus cries out that God has forsaken him. Yet I am free of the anguish implied in that moment.
In that moment that Abraham lifts the knife above Isaac's head, he is ready to abandon the promised future for which he had given everything, rendering it all without a reason. But what if reason, what if reward and consequence were removed from his obedience? All that would be left is the gift of his now.
Imagine there's no heaven.
There is no eternal consequence, no eternal reward. And without both, we are freed from debt and obligation. Every gift of grace may now be experienced, celebrated and enjoyed in the present, without why. Thus is grace become truly unconditional. And in this unconditional grace, I experience God.
And I am called to live for this unconditional grace. In this beautiful now, in which every one of those gifts may break through something that ought to be without any purpose, an accident that ends in an icy entropic death, I experience God.
Freed from the existence of God, every molecule in every moment is a beauty and a wonder.
Every opportunity to relieve or lessen suffering is a gift.
Every step taken toward justice in a universe headed to nothingness is an act of audacious hope. In this, I experience God.
I may be asked, as Caputo is asked in this book, why I would call this God at all. With Caputo, I must insist. Born into a world in which God is assumed, I have no better word to describe this experience in being. Others may not. I may not one day. But it works for me, born as I was to whom I was. And in this word, this name, so much is redeemed to me.
In my early twenties, I wrote a short poem that came to me many times as I read this book. It follows here.
The flower,
the butterfly,
and the violin
do not know
that perhaps in their lifetime
they will be loved
for nothing they have done
but only for the gift that they are
When I wrote that poem, I admit that I imagined a lover bestowing love upon them. In this love was their value.
The flower was uniquely significant. I was moved by the thought of some flower on a mountain, one that blooms and dies, never having been appreciated by a conscious living being. Somehow, I imagined that the presence of a supernatural force would make even this insignificant flower meaningful.
It's a nice thought.
But how much deeper an unconditional grace is it for that flower to bloom without the why of an outside lover. The finite life of this flower, blooming on its own without any being to appreciate its beauty, needs no excuse. Even without pollination and reproduction, the beauty of the flower is enough, contained in its own time. Without why.
And thus is this beautiful flower of a universe in which we now are.
And in the profound realization of the beauty of this immediate, passing, and mortal moment, I experience God. I experience God as mortal, as finite, as nonexistent. Yet, I do.
And I do not believe.
And I am without debt.
And I am without reward.
And I hope.
Thank you for this book.
I recommend this book to any former believer still grieving their loss of belief. I recommend it to any seeking atheist, who wishes to remain both.
Finally, I want to also say that I read The Weakness of God by John Caputo last year, and found it a very difficult and tedious read. This book has opened up my understanding of that far denser work. Though I cannot recommend Weakness to anyone but serious students of philosophy, I just want to assure potential readers that this book is different. Caputo takes on a far more conversational and accessible style in Hoping Against Hope. It is a well cited book with an impressive bibliography, and rigorously argued. But it is also very readable. Dig in.
October 12, 2015
Caputo has wounded me. I'm a wounded human being: wounded by love for the world, hope for the world, inspired by the gift of the world. Caputo's religion* is life, materiality, hope, and love. Caputo's religion* is a religion of the rose, of the flower which blossoms without why, for no reason, just to blossom, without a concern that it's seen. Caputo's religion* is a nihilism of grace, the gift of grace without foundations or grounds, without exchange, without payback, but simply for the hell of it, as an end in itself, never a means to another end. Life is an end unto itself. Love is an end unto itself. Unconditional giving is giving without the need for receiving, without the need to hear how generous we are. Caputo is also wounded, a wounded soul, set on fire by the world. Never have I read an author who inspires such passion and vitality in me.
Live, move, have your being. Enjoy your life, share it, live dangerously, affirm your abilities, touch those around you, eat good food, ride the bus, give gifts unconditionally, be hospitable to the orphan, widow, and stranger. Listen to the suffering of others, and the suffering of yourself. Have hope, faith, and love. Receive life. Take it. Enjoy it. Don't even bother saying "thank you" for the ability to be alive. Let your enjoyment of life be your "thank you." Let your life, your laughter and tears and regrets, be your "thank you." Embrace it all. See the smile on the face of matter, and smile back. Smile even through your tears. This is the life of faith, hope, and love.
Live, move, have your being. Enjoy your life, share it, live dangerously, affirm your abilities, touch those around you, eat good food, ride the bus, give gifts unconditionally, be hospitable to the orphan, widow, and stranger. Listen to the suffering of others, and the suffering of yourself. Have hope, faith, and love. Receive life. Take it. Enjoy it. Don't even bother saying "thank you" for the ability to be alive. Let your enjoyment of life be your "thank you." Let your life, your laughter and tears and regrets, be your "thank you." Embrace it all. See the smile on the face of matter, and smile back. Smile even through your tears. This is the life of faith, hope, and love.
October 1, 2019
This review is a difficult one. Caputo has touched me deeply, has stirred something deep inside me, has wounded me with the beauty of his words, with the elegance of his poetics. Yet it seems almost impossible for me to reformulate his ideas, to explain his postmodern repetition of religion which he calls by names such as Religionless Religion, Mysticism of the Rose, or Nihilism of Grace. I realized this when I thought about how I could talk about what I read in this book with other people. In the last chapter of the book it becomes clear where this difficulty stems from:
"The play of the gift cannot be contracted into a logic, even a theo-logic. It requires instead the lighter touch of a poetics, or of a theopoetics, a soft song to the most elemental conditions of our lives."
The poetic way in which Caputo speaks about these ideas is integral part of these ideas and they can hardly be formulated in a non-poetic way. This is why it so hard to reproduce these ideas. What I am going to do instead is to just give you some of the many passages that I loved the most and that hopefully can be understood at least partially without the context of the whole book:
"Religion is constantly getting in its own way by its built-in tendency to shrink down the unconditional gift (which is the religion in religion) into an economic exchange... When these works of mercy have that religion up their sleeve, by which I mean the economy of salvation, that is not the gift... But in the proto-religion whose cause I am advancing , the works of mercy are the kingdom of God; the kingdom of God is not a reward for doing works of mercy."
"The name of God is the name of a call that calls for a response, of an insistence that strains to exist, of a truth that we are asked to make come true in these works... The insistence of God comes to exist in these works and as these works. The name of God is a fragile flower, a rose easily crushed under the heavy boots of confessional doctrines, by marketing deals sold from the pulpit, and by missionary expeditions profiteering on the misery of the poor, and other versions of celestial economies still to come."
"God is neither the Highest Being, nor being's ground, but the unconditional call that solicits being, a disturbance rumbling within being, not a rock but a crack or a crevice; not a juncture but a disjoining, a rupture; not a plenum but a gap; not the gap God fills but the gap God opens. The name of God is the name of a deep restlessness that inserts itself in being, that makes being restless with becoming and with longing for the future... The only 'might' of God of which we might speak is the might of might-be. God's only being is may-being, which is what it means to say that God does not exist, that God calls, that God does not exist, God insists."
There are so many other beautiful things going on in this book that may change how you view life and how you live your life. Maybe you hear the unheard call that invites you to read this book. Will you respond?
"The play of the gift cannot be contracted into a logic, even a theo-logic. It requires instead the lighter touch of a poetics, or of a theopoetics, a soft song to the most elemental conditions of our lives."
The poetic way in which Caputo speaks about these ideas is integral part of these ideas and they can hardly be formulated in a non-poetic way. This is why it so hard to reproduce these ideas. What I am going to do instead is to just give you some of the many passages that I loved the most and that hopefully can be understood at least partially without the context of the whole book:
"Religion is constantly getting in its own way by its built-in tendency to shrink down the unconditional gift (which is the religion in religion) into an economic exchange... When these works of mercy have that religion up their sleeve, by which I mean the economy of salvation, that is not the gift... But in the proto-religion whose cause I am advancing , the works of mercy are the kingdom of God; the kingdom of God is not a reward for doing works of mercy."
"The name of God is the name of a call that calls for a response, of an insistence that strains to exist, of a truth that we are asked to make come true in these works... The insistence of God comes to exist in these works and as these works. The name of God is a fragile flower, a rose easily crushed under the heavy boots of confessional doctrines, by marketing deals sold from the pulpit, and by missionary expeditions profiteering on the misery of the poor, and other versions of celestial economies still to come."
"God is neither the Highest Being, nor being's ground, but the unconditional call that solicits being, a disturbance rumbling within being, not a rock but a crack or a crevice; not a juncture but a disjoining, a rupture; not a plenum but a gap; not the gap God fills but the gap God opens. The name of God is the name of a deep restlessness that inserts itself in being, that makes being restless with becoming and with longing for the future... The only 'might' of God of which we might speak is the might of might-be. God's only being is may-being, which is what it means to say that God does not exist, that God calls, that God does not exist, God insists."
There are so many other beautiful things going on in this book that may change how you view life and how you live your life. Maybe you hear the unheard call that invites you to read this book. Will you respond?
April 21, 2017
So many mixed emotions with this work. For one, it is a spiritual autobiography of Caputo. I enjoyed the deeply-personal side of the book because it opened a window into the heart of a seriously thoughtful philosopher of religion. So much of what he said regarding the "why" of religion and God-talk was spot on.
At the same time, I don't know if I follow him , metaphysically. While he claims that his God is not a Feuerbachian project of the mind (but instead a "projectile"), his claims that God cannot even insist without us left me wanting more. The extent to which the kingdom of God is the activity or participation of the hopeful in the world was great, but in his usage it only made Him sound more like Feuerbach. His proposals are honest and far from "classically theistic."
I also gathered a sense of animosity towards traditional religion (Some of that is warranted). Maybe I am not perceptive enough to grapple with the metaphysical and ethical implications of the grim, nihilistic theology he's constructing. I enjoyed the book, but don't know if I follow Caputo everywhere he goes.
At the same time, I don't know if I follow him , metaphysically. While he claims that his God is not a Feuerbachian project of the mind (but instead a "projectile"), his claims that God cannot even insist without us left me wanting more. The extent to which the kingdom of God is the activity or participation of the hopeful in the world was great, but in his usage it only made Him sound more like Feuerbach. His proposals are honest and far from "classically theistic."
I also gathered a sense of animosity towards traditional religion (Some of that is warranted). Maybe I am not perceptive enough to grapple with the metaphysical and ethical implications of the grim, nihilistic theology he's constructing. I enjoyed the book, but don't know if I follow Caputo everywhere he goes.
April 12, 2018
this was so beautifully written that i'm sure that i've missed many nuances; but it's wounded me. and i will be returning soon, jack.
November 2, 2015
Hoping Against Hope is a book that I really enjoyed reading despite disagreeing with the author's conclusions. Caputo is a wonderful writer and has a deep understanding of the history of philosophy which he uses to masterfully craft short vignettes as he interacts with himself and the great western philosophers.It is this interaction with his younger self and philosophers which I particularly enjoyed. In fact, at times I found myself not wanting to allow myself to think about where he was going but couldn't help but read on due to the pure delight I experienced in his interaction with philosophy. It was not unlike watching a horror movie in which you have become deeply involved with the plot and yet experience a sense of dread as you realize exactly where it is leading.
The basic premise of Hoping Against Hope is that it doesn't matter so much if God exists... we ought to live as if he does. Not because we are duty bound to honor him as God, but simply because the themes of the kingdom (mercy, forgiveness, etc) are worthy pursuits of which no one can bring a charge against. Consider the following,
"if the unconditional does not exist, and if the name of God is the name of something unconditional, then God does not exist -- just in virtue of the unconditional purity of the gift, of forgiveness, of everything unconditional . . ."
This is what Caputo refers to as the "nihilism of grace" and is a central theme in Hoping Against Hope. To live this way . . . to live a life of compassion, mercy and forgiveness is only rightfully lived (according to Caputo) without why. To live without why is to live a virtuous life divorced from the virtue's relation to God. An act of compassion is only truly compassionate if it is done simply for the sake of compassion and not under the auspice of God's favor or displeasure.
I understand what Caputo is getting at and in part agree with him. Mercy is only merciful when it is enacted for the sake of another and not when motivated by fear of God or an alternative motive of gaining favor with God. This is certainly true. But I think Caputo is too quick to dismiss that we often times do the right thing not to find favor with God, but simply because we desire to please him as a child desires to please his mother or father. In other words, our good works are acts of worship (not merit) that we do out of gratitude toward God. Furthermore, Caputo seems to dismiss (or at least neglects to address) the idea that the only possible way that sinful man can possess true virtue is by the grace of God. Our compassion, our forgiveness, and our mercy all have their origin in God. They are foreign and not naturally born properties within the heart of man.
Overall I really enjoyed Hoping against Hope. I found Caputo easy to read and sincere. However, as a theology, it fails to answer the deeper questions of why we do what we do. Simply doing them without why sounds good enough, but upon reflection, is inadequate to tame the sinful heart of man.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Fortress Press in exchange for an online review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising
The basic premise of Hoping Against Hope is that it doesn't matter so much if God exists... we ought to live as if he does. Not because we are duty bound to honor him as God, but simply because the themes of the kingdom (mercy, forgiveness, etc) are worthy pursuits of which no one can bring a charge against. Consider the following,
"if the unconditional does not exist, and if the name of God is the name of something unconditional, then God does not exist -- just in virtue of the unconditional purity of the gift, of forgiveness, of everything unconditional . . ."
This is what Caputo refers to as the "nihilism of grace" and is a central theme in Hoping Against Hope. To live this way . . . to live a life of compassion, mercy and forgiveness is only rightfully lived (according to Caputo) without why. To live without why is to live a virtuous life divorced from the virtue's relation to God. An act of compassion is only truly compassionate if it is done simply for the sake of compassion and not under the auspice of God's favor or displeasure.
I understand what Caputo is getting at and in part agree with him. Mercy is only merciful when it is enacted for the sake of another and not when motivated by fear of God or an alternative motive of gaining favor with God. This is certainly true. But I think Caputo is too quick to dismiss that we often times do the right thing not to find favor with God, but simply because we desire to please him as a child desires to please his mother or father. In other words, our good works are acts of worship (not merit) that we do out of gratitude toward God. Furthermore, Caputo seems to dismiss (or at least neglects to address) the idea that the only possible way that sinful man can possess true virtue is by the grace of God. Our compassion, our forgiveness, and our mercy all have their origin in God. They are foreign and not naturally born properties within the heart of man.
Overall I really enjoyed Hoping against Hope. I found Caputo easy to read and sincere. However, as a theology, it fails to answer the deeper questions of why we do what we do. Simply doing them without why sounds good enough, but upon reflection, is inadequate to tame the sinful heart of man.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Fortress Press in exchange for an online review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising
June 26, 2024
THE PHILOSOPHY PROFESSOR OUTLINES A “POSTMODERN RELIGION”
John D. Caputo is a professor emeritus at Syracuse University and Villanova University. He has written many other books, such as Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida; What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church; The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion without Religion; Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project; Hoping Against Hope: Confessions of a Postmodern Pilgrim, The Folly of God: A Theology of the Unconditional, etc.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 2015 book, “religion is coming apart at the seams all by itself, withering away from within… As a result, religion is being torn up by an internal divide. On the one hand, the conservatives… are in full flight to biblical literalism or the authority of the Church. On the other hand, the progressives are in full flight from the conservatives… in search of a way to live sensibly and commodiously in a rapidly changing, postmodern, hi-tech, multicultural world… The conservatives confirm that religion required believing fantasies. The progressives confirm that living well has little or nothing to do with believing in religion’s supernatural beings and codified doctrines. Indeed… living well is actually impeded by it and too often results in leading furiously reactionary, intolerant, exclusionary, avaricious, mean-spirited, science denying and anti-modern lives.” (Pg. 14)
He adds, “I hope I have made it plain that for the most part religion deserves all the incredulity by which it is presently greeted. My best guess is that in its orthodox form it will become more and more incredible with each passing day, which does not mean it will pass away. Unless there might be another religion, another way of hoping and having faith, another sense of grace and miracle… without mystifying itself with supernatural forces or special revelations. If there is not another religion, then the hope religion offers is hopeless, religion is not worth saving, and [Jean Francois] Lyotard is right to ignore it.” (Pg. 19)
He outlines, “In this book, the mystics play a special role as the insiders in religion, whose bold strokes cut to the core of religion, while all along being outsiders who unnerve the powers-that-be on the inside… I will then turn to two familiar, everyday, commonplace experiences---giving a gift and hospitality---and propose that each of them trembles with mystical depth and each represents a powerful and important ingredient in the case I am making for a postmodern religion… That is all by way of amassing evidence to present to the court for the position I take on God… [Then I will] formulate a repetition of religion, a religion without religion, which turns on what I call the ‘nihilism of grace’…” (Pg. 21-22)
He recalls his period in the French monastic order ‘Fratres Scholarum Christianarum [‘Brothers of the Christian Schools’]: “After four years, I left the religious life… I thanked [Brother Provincial] for the many gifts I had been given in my four precious years as a Brother, one of which was to have discovered my vocation---the life of a philosopher---for which I have been grateful all my life. But I soon learned there was to be no clear line of separation between religion and my philosophical life. Every time I thought I had left religion behind, I found it waiting for me around the next corner, its arms crossed, with a grin to its face, as if to say, ‘its’ about time you showed up.’” (Pg. 26)
He observes, “without the mystical poet’s sense of the unconditional, everything would be a means to an end, everything would be ground up in serving a purpose, and nothing would be worth anything unless we could use it for something else… There would be no gift, no grace in life… We would spend our whole lives saving up for something we never buy… So instead of CHOOSING between the conditional and the unconditional, it is a matter of LIVING between them. The mark of the human condition is to live in the distance between the conditional and the unconditional, to constantly negotiate between them.” (Pg. 36-37)
He explains, “I am signaling a wholly other sort of God, and dreaming of another sort of Church… the pattern is emerging of a God who would have landed me in public school. A God who is otherwise, who abdicates the power to punish his enemies with eternal pain and to reward his friends with eternal happiness. These two, both the Prime Punisher and the Royal Rewarder go hand in hand; they come as a package deal in the economy of salvation.” (Pg. 64)
He notes, “When I am invited to speak by various church groups, I sometimes find myself preaching to the converted, to people who are already doing what I am theorizing, so that the most I can do for them is provide them with a vocabulary they can use at cocktail parties. The word ‘welcoming’ these congregations have embraced is a hot topic in postmodern theory, but I find that the people on the ground, in the working church, are already DOING what we theorists are theorizing.” (Pg. 88)
He states, “the core idea I have about God”: “the proper way to speak of God is to say not that God exists, but that God insists, while we are called upon to make up the difference. We are asked to pick up where God leaves off, to fill up the existence that is lacking in the insistence of God. God insists, but the weight of God’s existence falls on us. The easy yoke and incredible lightness of God’s insistence implies that the gravity of existence is our responsibility, that the burden of existence falls on our shoulders. As the mystics say, God needs us.” (Pg. 106)
He acknowledges, “I admit to serving up an unauthorized reading of the Scriptures, which I treat as if they were texts found in a cave whose authors are unknown, which we read because of what they have to say, not because we are told they dropped from the sky… To rid God of God is to let God dissolve with remainder into narratives about God, which it is up to us to actualize, to leave it to us to make these stories of unknown provenance come true.” (Pg. 126)
He says, “To pray is to keep the world restless with the future, where the God of the gaps means the gaps God opens, not the gaps God fills. To pray is to be prompted by the promise of the uncompromisable, moved by the memory of the immemorial, pushed beyond the limits of the possible by the impossible. Prayer… keeps the world in a state of optimal disequilibrium exposing the world to God’s pressing insistence. Prayer is a way to keep faith with life to sustain the hope that the future is always better, to better pledge of the unconditional.” (Pg. 196)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying contemporary/progressive Christianity.
John D. Caputo is a professor emeritus at Syracuse University and Villanova University. He has written many other books, such as Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida; What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church; The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion without Religion; Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project; Hoping Against Hope: Confessions of a Postmodern Pilgrim, The Folly of God: A Theology of the Unconditional, etc.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 2015 book, “religion is coming apart at the seams all by itself, withering away from within… As a result, religion is being torn up by an internal divide. On the one hand, the conservatives… are in full flight to biblical literalism or the authority of the Church. On the other hand, the progressives are in full flight from the conservatives… in search of a way to live sensibly and commodiously in a rapidly changing, postmodern, hi-tech, multicultural world… The conservatives confirm that religion required believing fantasies. The progressives confirm that living well has little or nothing to do with believing in religion’s supernatural beings and codified doctrines. Indeed… living well is actually impeded by it and too often results in leading furiously reactionary, intolerant, exclusionary, avaricious, mean-spirited, science denying and anti-modern lives.” (Pg. 14)
He adds, “I hope I have made it plain that for the most part religion deserves all the incredulity by which it is presently greeted. My best guess is that in its orthodox form it will become more and more incredible with each passing day, which does not mean it will pass away. Unless there might be another religion, another way of hoping and having faith, another sense of grace and miracle… without mystifying itself with supernatural forces or special revelations. If there is not another religion, then the hope religion offers is hopeless, religion is not worth saving, and [Jean Francois] Lyotard is right to ignore it.” (Pg. 19)
He outlines, “In this book, the mystics play a special role as the insiders in religion, whose bold strokes cut to the core of religion, while all along being outsiders who unnerve the powers-that-be on the inside… I will then turn to two familiar, everyday, commonplace experiences---giving a gift and hospitality---and propose that each of them trembles with mystical depth and each represents a powerful and important ingredient in the case I am making for a postmodern religion… That is all by way of amassing evidence to present to the court for the position I take on God… [Then I will] formulate a repetition of religion, a religion without religion, which turns on what I call the ‘nihilism of grace’…” (Pg. 21-22)
He recalls his period in the French monastic order ‘Fratres Scholarum Christianarum [‘Brothers of the Christian Schools’]: “After four years, I left the religious life… I thanked [Brother Provincial] for the many gifts I had been given in my four precious years as a Brother, one of which was to have discovered my vocation---the life of a philosopher---for which I have been grateful all my life. But I soon learned there was to be no clear line of separation between religion and my philosophical life. Every time I thought I had left religion behind, I found it waiting for me around the next corner, its arms crossed, with a grin to its face, as if to say, ‘its’ about time you showed up.’” (Pg. 26)
He observes, “without the mystical poet’s sense of the unconditional, everything would be a means to an end, everything would be ground up in serving a purpose, and nothing would be worth anything unless we could use it for something else… There would be no gift, no grace in life… We would spend our whole lives saving up for something we never buy… So instead of CHOOSING between the conditional and the unconditional, it is a matter of LIVING between them. The mark of the human condition is to live in the distance between the conditional and the unconditional, to constantly negotiate between them.” (Pg. 36-37)
He explains, “I am signaling a wholly other sort of God, and dreaming of another sort of Church… the pattern is emerging of a God who would have landed me in public school. A God who is otherwise, who abdicates the power to punish his enemies with eternal pain and to reward his friends with eternal happiness. These two, both the Prime Punisher and the Royal Rewarder go hand in hand; they come as a package deal in the economy of salvation.” (Pg. 64)
He notes, “When I am invited to speak by various church groups, I sometimes find myself preaching to the converted, to people who are already doing what I am theorizing, so that the most I can do for them is provide them with a vocabulary they can use at cocktail parties. The word ‘welcoming’ these congregations have embraced is a hot topic in postmodern theory, but I find that the people on the ground, in the working church, are already DOING what we theorists are theorizing.” (Pg. 88)
He states, “the core idea I have about God”: “the proper way to speak of God is to say not that God exists, but that God insists, while we are called upon to make up the difference. We are asked to pick up where God leaves off, to fill up the existence that is lacking in the insistence of God. God insists, but the weight of God’s existence falls on us. The easy yoke and incredible lightness of God’s insistence implies that the gravity of existence is our responsibility, that the burden of existence falls on our shoulders. As the mystics say, God needs us.” (Pg. 106)
He acknowledges, “I admit to serving up an unauthorized reading of the Scriptures, which I treat as if they were texts found in a cave whose authors are unknown, which we read because of what they have to say, not because we are told they dropped from the sky… To rid God of God is to let God dissolve with remainder into narratives about God, which it is up to us to actualize, to leave it to us to make these stories of unknown provenance come true.” (Pg. 126)
He says, “To pray is to keep the world restless with the future, where the God of the gaps means the gaps God opens, not the gaps God fills. To pray is to be prompted by the promise of the uncompromisable, moved by the memory of the immemorial, pushed beyond the limits of the possible by the impossible. Prayer… keeps the world in a state of optimal disequilibrium exposing the world to God’s pressing insistence. Prayer is a way to keep faith with life to sustain the hope that the future is always better, to better pledge of the unconditional.” (Pg. 196)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying contemporary/progressive Christianity.
December 13, 2016
I liked this book so much I read it twice. I dedicate it to anyone who enjoys philosophical/theological hybrids, deconstruction, or quasi-religious memoirs. Many thumbs up.
February 24, 2020
This might be the most attuned I've ever felt with a work of theology. Caputo lays out a theological position intended to rescue religion from itself. His aim is to sketch a god that is wholly exempt from the economies of grace that are most religions' stock and trade: that good works can be traded for heavenly rewards, or that god should be considered as an omnipotent being and creator. Rather, he recognizes that god cannot be a being at all, even the highest type of being. In fact, Caputo doesn't even want to say of god that he exists. Simply that there is some incredible grace in the sheer givenness of existing things, and that we feel a call of something plenary to values of exchange and conditional cause and effect. And that Unconditional is the god that calls, even if he doesn't exist. Caputo's radical vision of divinity is a god who does not exist, but insists.
Caputo argues against both atheists (believers in something, like everyone else), and "long robes" (professional religionists, who have figured out how to make a buck on the Incarnation). He also aims to avoid the pitfalls of Neoplatonism's dualism. He wants instead a nihilism of grace, that celebrates the mysticism of the rose in the sense that it is simply there, existing for itself in sheer gratuity of being, not for any other purpose (or at least, that beyond all those other purposes and causalities attached to the flower, there is also some remainder left that is the pure wonder of being).
As you might expect, Caputo reveres the mystics like Meister Eckhart and Marguerite Porete, and he is also among them. He is touched by the holy fire of poetry, to sing the song of the Unconditional and to attempt to describe the beatific vision, that indescribable lightning that illuminates all existence from within. He sees that worship that no living being can avoid making, and he uses tropes and categories drawn from unlikely theological sources like Lyotard, Derrida, Levinas, and Heidegger to tease it out.
At bottom, Caputo's entire project rests on a kind of superfluity of optimism. He acts as though his imaginary interlocutor's chief objection is to the nihilism of his position as meaninglessness, but the real question is why and whence the sense of optimism in nihilism. It can only be so because Caputo considers existence to be a good (even if a gratuitous one), and where can that assumption arise other than the old god of three perfections: powerful, wise and good, who is also the god of Plato and the mystics, but also professors too? So in the end, it does rest on or turn into a proof for the existence of god. He is trying to trace a path that doesn't rely on transcendent divinity or panentheism by describing god emptying himself into the world without being coextensive with it.
Caputo's propensity for optimism, like my own, has a givenness to it that does not ask for a proof. But a troubling question remains: the possessor of that optimism receives a grace, because it cannot be given to another or communicated unless the recipient already has it. How could you ever convince someone of the goodness of the world if they do not simply feel it in their bones? I don't think you can. But it exists as a grace in the sense of something freely given to those who have it.
So while I found myself ecstatically nodding along to almost everything here, I also feel Caputo has not strayed as far from the old god of the philosophers as he thinks. In the end, Caputo is trying to describe an ecstatic vision consonant with the apophatic mystics...and he's quite a preacher! This is a postmodern confession and a creed that could unite atheists and theists alike, so long as they are people of hope. Hope that somehow smiles even in the face of total cosmic annihilation, that sees "the smile on the surface of matter" without it mattering if eternity exists outside of time, or if there's any salvation beyond the little moments we grasp in the mundane. It's a creed I can almost fully profess, because I too was born into the grace of optimism. I can look total death in the eye and laugh, and that's what this book calls us to do.
Caputo argues against both atheists (believers in something, like everyone else), and "long robes" (professional religionists, who have figured out how to make a buck on the Incarnation). He also aims to avoid the pitfalls of Neoplatonism's dualism. He wants instead a nihilism of grace, that celebrates the mysticism of the rose in the sense that it is simply there, existing for itself in sheer gratuity of being, not for any other purpose (or at least, that beyond all those other purposes and causalities attached to the flower, there is also some remainder left that is the pure wonder of being).
As you might expect, Caputo reveres the mystics like Meister Eckhart and Marguerite Porete, and he is also among them. He is touched by the holy fire of poetry, to sing the song of the Unconditional and to attempt to describe the beatific vision, that indescribable lightning that illuminates all existence from within. He sees that worship that no living being can avoid making, and he uses tropes and categories drawn from unlikely theological sources like Lyotard, Derrida, Levinas, and Heidegger to tease it out.
At bottom, Caputo's entire project rests on a kind of superfluity of optimism. He acts as though his imaginary interlocutor's chief objection is to the nihilism of his position as meaninglessness, but the real question is why and whence the sense of optimism in nihilism. It can only be so because Caputo considers existence to be a good (even if a gratuitous one), and where can that assumption arise other than the old god of three perfections: powerful, wise and good, who is also the god of Plato and the mystics, but also professors too? So in the end, it does rest on or turn into a proof for the existence of god. He is trying to trace a path that doesn't rely on transcendent divinity or panentheism by describing god emptying himself into the world without being coextensive with it.
Caputo's propensity for optimism, like my own, has a givenness to it that does not ask for a proof. But a troubling question remains: the possessor of that optimism receives a grace, because it cannot be given to another or communicated unless the recipient already has it. How could you ever convince someone of the goodness of the world if they do not simply feel it in their bones? I don't think you can. But it exists as a grace in the sense of something freely given to those who have it.
So while I found myself ecstatically nodding along to almost everything here, I also feel Caputo has not strayed as far from the old god of the philosophers as he thinks. In the end, Caputo is trying to describe an ecstatic vision consonant with the apophatic mystics...and he's quite a preacher! This is a postmodern confession and a creed that could unite atheists and theists alike, so long as they are people of hope. Hope that somehow smiles even in the face of total cosmic annihilation, that sees "the smile on the surface of matter" without it mattering if eternity exists outside of time, or if there's any salvation beyond the little moments we grasp in the mundane. It's a creed I can almost fully profess, because I too was born into the grace of optimism. I can look total death in the eye and laugh, and that's what this book calls us to do.
February 13, 2023
This is my first book by Caputo. I am not sure what I was looking for when I picked up his book. Part of my interest I guess was to dive deeper into the postmodern mind. His journey as both a theologian and philosopher brings a lot of insight. I appreciated his critiques of modern religion as well as some of the things he hoped for. I did appreciate his religion of the rose which does not have a why it simply is. The god that he does not like in the little church filled with violence and hunger for power and control is a god that I reject as well. As much as I enjoyed his journey and his ability to challenge religion and even our beliefs about God I finished the book thinking he really does not give us hope. Ultimately his rose analogy and finding hope simply in a "smile" left many questions unanswered. Certainly, his rejection of immortality which gives hope to mortal beings sounds nice but still falls short. Pointing out how Neoplatonic thought has destroyed the here in now is good but still seems to be inadequate. If we live simply for the here and now with a smile, what about those who cannot smile because of injustice to them? In other words, not everyone gets to smile. Some people's lives suck and if there is no justice or meaning beyond the temporal situation then not only is there no hope now but there is no hope at all. The rose and the smile cannot deal with issues of justice. As a result, "Hoping against Hope" leaves me somewhat in despair. Caputo is happy to have a god that does not exist. He believes that this is a good thing. I find this a terrifying thought.
March 15, 2020
I was a bit disappointed in this book. For a start, I found the writing style of John Caputo to be mildly irritating. He tries just a little too hard to be popular or accessible and the splitting of himself into multiple personalities roughly corresponding to stages in the development of his thought during his lifetime just didn't work for me. He also repeatedly announces he is going to state something terribly radical, only to come out with something which doesn't go that far beyond Tillich (who he is fond of quoting). The book is also very strongly framed in relation to the Catholic Church, which is not so interesting for me (but I can hardly blame the author for that).
That much is mostly stylistic. However, what I had a more serious problem with is that he is very inward looking, completely ignoring issues that concern many such as environmental destruction. Creation is mentioned as being (obviously) a gift of God, and it is exactly that attitude which has given moral 'permission' to people to mess the world up. His starting point is nihilism, based on the thought that at a given moment the sun will burn up and the earth will be no more. Interestingly, it doesn't seem to occur to him that those sort of cosmic timescales are long enough that a serious amount of evolution will have taken place by then, so people as we know them won't be around anyway. He makes a point that 'thought' will be no more at that point, which aside from not realizing the evolutionary aspect, also appears to ignore the extreme anthropomorphism of that statement.
All that criticism gives an unduly negative impression though. There was also plenty of good thoughtful stuff to read. He does indeed take the demythologizing of Tillich a step further, especially in relation to the afterlife and eternity. I enjoyed his chapter in inter-faith dialogue which though I didn't find it as radical as perhaps he imagines, nicely emphasises the value of diversity, which in these popularist days is always a good thing. "There is not one true blue form of life but a rainbow; and while it is true, it is not The Truth", is a nice quote.
That much is mostly stylistic. However, what I had a more serious problem with is that he is very inward looking, completely ignoring issues that concern many such as environmental destruction. Creation is mentioned as being (obviously) a gift of God, and it is exactly that attitude which has given moral 'permission' to people to mess the world up. His starting point is nihilism, based on the thought that at a given moment the sun will burn up and the earth will be no more. Interestingly, it doesn't seem to occur to him that those sort of cosmic timescales are long enough that a serious amount of evolution will have taken place by then, so people as we know them won't be around anyway. He makes a point that 'thought' will be no more at that point, which aside from not realizing the evolutionary aspect, also appears to ignore the extreme anthropomorphism of that statement.
All that criticism gives an unduly negative impression though. There was also plenty of good thoughtful stuff to read. He does indeed take the demythologizing of Tillich a step further, especially in relation to the afterlife and eternity. I enjoyed his chapter in inter-faith dialogue which though I didn't find it as radical as perhaps he imagines, nicely emphasises the value of diversity, which in these popularist days is always a good thing. "There is not one true blue form of life but a rainbow; and while it is true, it is not The Truth", is a nice quote.
June 14, 2019
Caputo's memoir and poetic/pun-filled style makes this overview of his reformation religion of nihilistic grace more accessible that his earlier philosophical books. His calling, God of insistence vs. existence leans toward Process Theology without explicitly saying so. This is beautiful stuff, but impossible for Caputo to put into words, though he tries. The tension in this little tome is almost as unbearable as it is beautiful. Like the cheers of a great cloud of witnesses, Caputo encourages, but does not nearly describe the way.
September 21, 2025
Took forever to read this, kept starting and stopping and restarting. I really liked most of the concepts Caputo lays in this book, specifically the idea that God “insists” and therefore “exists” thru people who act in his image. I felt like his writing style was a little repetitive, but I think he does so to reinforce his ideas. It was a little hard for me to read for long period of time because it produced so many other thoughts in my head: this is good and bad. Overall enjoyed the sentiments it left me with.
September 12, 2020
spectacularly poignant and insightful
the writer puts into words the feelings many of us struggle to articulate. i will likely read it again over the years. i resonate with the various personifications tugging at one another over seemingly fundamental issues, yet coming to a peaceful settlement and appreciation of the unifying truth at the end. i’m hopeful that i too will experience this in my journey someday.
the writer puts into words the feelings many of us struggle to articulate. i will likely read it again over the years. i resonate with the various personifications tugging at one another over seemingly fundamental issues, yet coming to a peaceful settlement and appreciation of the unifying truth at the end. i’m hopeful that i too will experience this in my journey someday.
June 5, 2018
Deceptively simple, which is likely what you get when you try to explain mysticism and take it seriously at the same time.
October 24, 2018
Not a book to be agreed with at all parts, nonetheless a delightful read—a wonderful introduction to a post-modern Christianity.
September 21, 2019
Devastatingly inspiring
A new turn, a repetition of religionless religion. About the uncondional gift, unconditional hospitality, daring to think, and daring to hope.
A new turn, a repetition of religionless religion. About the uncondional gift, unconditional hospitality, daring to think, and daring to hope.
April 19, 2021
Brilliant.
July 10, 2021
Thought provoking, well done.
October 25, 2021
It is always a great pleasure to read a book written by Jack Caputo. Hoping Against Hope is a gem. Brilliant, thoughtful and beautifully written.
March 16, 2024
I get where Caputo is coming from but I do not agree to all of his conclusions, but the book is beautifully written and I loved the poetic parts
June 24, 2024
Depends, it gives an interesting inside into progressive christianity, but as philosopy is weak. Language is simple, easy to understand. Mediocre read, but not tiring and has it's uses
October 31, 2015
Can Hope survive with the collapse of epistemology certainty? Is God necessarily existent for spiritual experience? Can the nihilism of our age open us up to the possibility of grace? Phenomenologist and deconstructionist John D. Caputo wrestles with these questions and more in his intellectual memoir, Hoping Against Hope (Confessions of a Postmodern Pilgrim). The book is a spiritual autobiography of sorts, but it only reveals the broad contours of Caputo's life, focusing on the development (or deconstruction?) of his thoughts on God, faith and certainty.
Caputo was raised in a devout Catholic family. He spent four years as a De LaSalle monk, before his illustrious career as a philosopher and theologians (thirty-six years as professor of Philosophy at Villanova University and professor of philosophy of religion at Syracuse University for seven years). In Hoping Against Hope he gives voice and personality to these various stages of his intellectual development. As a child Caputo was an altar boy in pre-Vatican II Catholicism who had memorized the Baltimore Catechism. Caputo refers to this younger self as "Jackie." "Brother Paul," is the monk Caputo who grew callouses on his knees in an attempt to learn prayer and had a love for the mystics. The professor, "John D.," is the the philosopher who's tongue was loosed by Jacques Derrida (the other Jackie) and the French Postmodernists.
Caputo writes:
With the Continental Philosophers, Heidigger, Derrida, Lacan, Lyotoard, Levinas, and others, Caputo thoroughly rejects the narrative of the Christian tradition and the official line of the Roman Catholic church. He dismantles dogma, expresses his antagonism toward the afterlife and a God that is either ' the Prime Punisher and the Royal Rewarder (64). He also regards the arguement between atheism and theism to be wrong-headed. With a Zen-Koan-like-air he proclaims, "God does not exist. God insists" (114). He gives fresh and unique interpretations of scripture and imagines the textual variants he wishes to one day uncover. Caputo's thoughts run far a field from classic Christian orthodoxy.
But his project isn't wholly negative. Caputo upholds active service to the poor and marginalized and the non-religious religion of love. He says his idea of nihilism is stolen from the mystics and he employs insights from Miester Eckhardt and Marguerite Porete (both mystics ran a foul from official church teaching). What Caputo proposes is a religion of the Rose--"The rose is without why; it blossoms because it blossoms; It cares not for itself, asks not if it's seen" (27). He brings this verse from Angelus Silesius into conversation wiht Lyotard's religion of the smile and posits a nihilism where all of life is received as a gift (with or without a giver), where all of life is received without condition (181).
As an intellectual memoir/spiritual autobiography I give this three stars and thought it was an interesting read. I especially loved the 'short nocturnal dialogue' where Caputo imagines a dialogue with himself at his different stages of faith and intellectual development. I appreciate how Caputo's postmodernity leads him to pluralism and relativism without the need to posit an underlying universal faith in God. However, I am unconvinced by Caputo's theological vision and see his radical (or weakness) theology as incompatible with the Christian gospel of grace. I was aware of Caputo before reading this book, so wasn't particularly surprised by what he says here. I have read him before and have seen him lecture. I find him fascinating. I also find it ironic that I received this book from Cross Focused reviews. If Caputo mentions the cross at all (and I don't remember that he does in this book), it is clearly not his focus. Anyway, I received this book in exchange for my honest review. ★★★
Caputo was raised in a devout Catholic family. He spent four years as a De LaSalle monk, before his illustrious career as a philosopher and theologians (thirty-six years as professor of Philosophy at Villanova University and professor of philosophy of religion at Syracuse University for seven years). In Hoping Against Hope he gives voice and personality to these various stages of his intellectual development. As a child Caputo was an altar boy in pre-Vatican II Catholicism who had memorized the Baltimore Catechism. Caputo refers to this younger self as "Jackie." "Brother Paul," is the monk Caputo who grew callouses on his knees in an attempt to learn prayer and had a love for the mystics. The professor, "John D.," is the the philosopher who's tongue was loosed by Jacques Derrida (the other Jackie) and the French Postmodernists.
Caputo writes:
My life as a philosopher gas taken place in the distance between theology and philosophy. Like everyone else, however far forward I thought I moved, I was always circling around my origins. I soon found that the audacity of the philosophers who "dare to think" according to the Enlightenment motto, fails them when it comes to theology. There they panic, in fear of contamination. They treat the name of God like a terrible computer virus that will corrupt all their files, or like a real one, like the Ebola virus, where the odds of recovering are against you. So, mostly at the beginning of my professional life, when "John D." stepped forth and responded to the title "professor," while telling Jackie to stay at home, I was worried that they would say, "This is not philosophy, this is just his religion." But my religion is between me and Brother Paul and Jackie and several others. How can they know anything about that? (104-105).
With the Continental Philosophers, Heidigger, Derrida, Lacan, Lyotoard, Levinas, and others, Caputo thoroughly rejects the narrative of the Christian tradition and the official line of the Roman Catholic church. He dismantles dogma, expresses his antagonism toward the afterlife and a God that is either ' the Prime Punisher and the Royal Rewarder (64). He also regards the arguement between atheism and theism to be wrong-headed. With a Zen-Koan-like-air he proclaims, "God does not exist. God insists" (114). He gives fresh and unique interpretations of scripture and imagines the textual variants he wishes to one day uncover. Caputo's thoughts run far a field from classic Christian orthodoxy.
But his project isn't wholly negative. Caputo upholds active service to the poor and marginalized and the non-religious religion of love. He says his idea of nihilism is stolen from the mystics and he employs insights from Miester Eckhardt and Marguerite Porete (both mystics ran a foul from official church teaching). What Caputo proposes is a religion of the Rose--"The rose is without why; it blossoms because it blossoms; It cares not for itself, asks not if it's seen" (27). He brings this verse from Angelus Silesius into conversation wiht Lyotard's religion of the smile and posits a nihilism where all of life is received as a gift (with or without a giver), where all of life is received without condition (181).
As an intellectual memoir/spiritual autobiography I give this three stars and thought it was an interesting read. I especially loved the 'short nocturnal dialogue' where Caputo imagines a dialogue with himself at his different stages of faith and intellectual development. I appreciate how Caputo's postmodernity leads him to pluralism and relativism without the need to posit an underlying universal faith in God. However, I am unconvinced by Caputo's theological vision and see his radical (or weakness) theology as incompatible with the Christian gospel of grace. I was aware of Caputo before reading this book, so wasn't particularly surprised by what he says here. I have read him before and have seen him lecture. I find him fascinating. I also find it ironic that I received this book from Cross Focused reviews. If Caputo mentions the cross at all (and I don't remember that he does in this book), it is clearly not his focus. Anyway, I received this book in exchange for my honest review. ★★★
December 4, 2021
I've just reread this book. It's all theopoetics--a kind of prose poem--written to describe, in a startling juxtaposition of words and phrases, what religion without religion might be, what God without God might be, what life could be if we received it as a gift. Biting. Madly slippery. Not quite not linear, but close enough so that I am always on the verge of wondering whether or not I get it. Lovely.
April 6, 2020
'De glimlach is een stille bevestiging van het leven, een subtiele omarming, een milde kracht, sterk genoeg om het leven te verdragen en hoop te geven.' Caputo's visie op religieus zijn heeft weinig te maken met God, godsdienst, kerk, dogma's enz. Religie wordt bekeken als lofzang op de glimlach, als manier om opnieuw verbonden worden met de kosmische glimlach.
October 14, 2016
If you like tight doctrine and a God that resembles a stale piece of bread than don't read this. I loved it.
December 31, 2016
For someone who wants to move beyond ontology he sure talks about it a great deal. Parmenides would have a field day.
December 27, 2015
Caputo is a great writer - I very much enjoyed this book.
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