On religion

231 Pages·2019·7.817 MB·English

by  John D. Caputo

On
Religion
In a thoroughly updated second edition of his popular and engag-
ing book, John D. Caputo revisits Augustine’s ancient question
“what do I love when I love my God?” and presses it into service in
the post-modern world. Accessible but without compromising the
big ideas, he raises the question of what religion means today in
the face of widespread religious violence after 9/11, of spreading
secularization, the dazzling discoveries of contemporary cosmol-
ogy, and the eerie advent of the “post-human” world. All along
sculpting the idea of a post-modern, post-secular “religion without
religion,” which turns on the “mystical element” of our lives, he
wonders what the future of traditional religion will be, or whether
it even has one.
On Religion will fascinate anyone interested in the challenges reli-
gion faces in the contemporary world. It offers an ideal starting
point from which undergraduate and postgraduate students, teach-
ers, and lecturers can explore religion and philosophy today.
John D. Caputo is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus
at Syracuse University, USA and the David R. Cook Professor of
Philosophy Emeritus at Villanova University, USA. He has pub-
lished both academic and popular books in the area of religion in
the post-modern world, where he has advanced the idea of what
he calls “weak theology.” His many books include The Weakness of
God (2006), Truth (2013), Hoping Against Hope (2015), and recently
Hermeneutics: Facts and Interpretation in the Age of Information (2018).

JOHN D. CAPUTO
On
Religion
Second edition
Second edition published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
 2019 John D. Caputo
The right of John D. Caputo to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 2001
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-71488-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-71486-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-19780-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Joanna
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
To Jacques Derrida (1930–2004),
who loosened my tongue,
wherever you are

Preface to the second edition ix
The love of God One 1
Religion is for lovers 1
The impossible 7
The secret 19
What do I love when I love my God? 26
How the secular world became post-secular Two 39
The sacral age 40
Secularization 44
Our prophets: Kierkegaard and Nietzsche 53
Desecularization: the death of the death of God 61
Putting religion in its place Three 73
What is what? 73
Why the why? 76
The mystical element in life 82
The place of religion 88
Can there be a religion with religion? Four 93
Never say “only” a symbol 94
A God before whom we can sing and dance 101
Why is religion so violent? Five 110
Impossible people 112
Religious violence 114
Ban the Bible 121
Ban the unconditional 125
Why was Jesus killed? 129
The hermeneutics of love 133
Cosmic grace: world without why, Amen Six 138
God is dead—or maybe not so fast 140
Cosmo-theology 142
Panentheism—or the divine milieu 146
Not your great-grandfather’s Newtonianism 151
The post-humans 157
Becoming divine: the electronic tree of life 161
Cosmic grace: world without why, Amen 166
On religion—without religion Seven 172
Religious truth/true religion 172
The tragic sense of life 182
The faith of a post-modern 190
Axioms of a religion without religion 197
Adieu 207
Index 208
Preface to the second edition
Given all the trouble that religion has caused in the contem-
porary world one would think that one edition of a book enti-
tled On Religion would be quite enough. But that, in fact, is
precisely the reason that I and my Routledge editors, to whom
I am very grateful for the opportunity, think that the time has
n
o
come to revisit this text. The first edition was written before ti
di
September 11, after which came the war in Iraq, a trifecta e
d
n
of folly, military, political and ethical, after which nothing o
c
e
has been the same. So apart from the obvious opportunity a s
e
second edition affords me to update examples and references h
t
o
that are no longer timely, there are more serious considera- t
e
c
tions. Chief among them is asking ourselves why religion is a
f
e
so violent, and more generally, whether and how religion and r
P
politics—subjects wisely banned from holiday dinners with x
i
conservative relatives—should be allowed in the same room,
which are issues treated only tangentially in the first edition
(see the new Chapter Five).
I also used this occasion to straighten out my critics, or
maybe I should say to respond to what has been the most
persistent objection to my defense of a religion without reli-
gion: “what about the possibility of a religion with religion?”
my more traditionally minded friends ask. Is it not possible
that the deep structure of a religion without religion is alive
and well—if not always at least often, if not in fact certainly