If you are looking for a book that explains in clear and simple prose what postmodernity is all about, and how it intersects between theology and philosophy, I\u2019ve got the book for you: John Caputo\u2019s Philosophy and Theology<\/em> caught me off guard. Tim West, at Abingdon, sent me this book with a note that he thought I\u2019d enjoy it. Enjoy? Hardly. I loved this little book. If you are looking for a book that explains in clear and simple prose what postmodernity is all about, and how it intersects between theology and philosophy, I\u2019ve got the book for you: John Caputo\u2019s Philosophy and Theology caught me off guard. Tim West, at Abingdon, sent me this book with a note that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736,1735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emerging-movement","category-weekly-meanderings"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nKnow this: it is a history of the relationship of philosophy and theology and it is \u2014 no kidding \u2014 funny and pleasurable. On top of this, it is short. A mere 74 pages. Readable as an E.B. White essay and as delightful as a Joseph Epstein essay and, at the end, as serious as Hemingway\u2019s The Old Man and the Sea<\/em>.
\nIn the last year I\u2019ve been asked a dozen times or more what I recommend as an introduction to postmodernity, and I have invariably recommended Lesslie Newbigin\u2019s A Proper Confidence<\/em>. No longer is his book the sole recommendation for I can recommend either. Newbigin\u2019s book is a little more missional while Caputo\u2019s more philosophical; there are lots of similarities.
\nI\u2019ll just give one major summary point: he sees the postmodern turn to be the impact of the hermeneutical turn (Heidegger), the linguistic turn (Descartes), and the revolutionary\/paradigmatic turn (Kuhn). There you have it. More significantly for many of us, he sees the postmodern turn to be one that permits faith, and hence theology, back in the room for a presence.
\nThe ringer in this book is that he carries on an imaginary conversation in the second to last chapter between St. Augustine and Jacques Derrida. Enlightening, provocative, and suggestive. It is Caputo\u2019s dilemma to determine if Derrida was a man of faith and prayer and an atheist or not. What distinguishes the two? Augustine and Derrida.
\nThe book is funny and light-hearted, and yet once he gets postmodernity on the stage, the book turns more serious and exploratory of Caputo\u2019s own faith and heart.
\nIf you buy this book and read it, you\u2019ll rise up and call me Blessed!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"