Specters of God: An Anatomy of the Apophatic Imagination

by John D. Caputo

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?

416 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2022

About the author

John 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.

Reviews

[Aaron Shileny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best book I have read this year. It is the third book to make my list of best theology books written this century.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following the insights of Eckhart, Luther, Hegel, Schelling, and Tillich; the opening created by Heidegger; and especially by fully adopting Derrida's program – Caputo is arguing for a weak theology and for a spectral God (i.e., a god without existence and only understood as an insistence or a promise). Fundamentally, this is about the history of the Godhead (i.e., the God behind the God) and everything that cannot be said about it in any theology or philosophy. The more systematic, rational, and transcendental the theology/philosophy become - the more nonsensical and metaphysical they also become. On the other side - materialism, atheism, rationalism, and scientism are not much better. The problem with the first side is that they lost touch with the divine in their attempt to grab and articulate it; as the more they try, the bigger the chasm. The second side sees nothing in the divine and completely denies it. Caputo makes a very good argument - and I found the first part of the book quite good. However, he is too much impressed and under the influence of Derrida, Zizek, the postmodernist movement, modern sciences (especially cosmology and quantum physics); plus that at the end Caputo is uncritically going along with all the stories of the current AI prophets.

[Sarah]

How did I not know this exists?!