Postmodern theology

Not to be confused with Positive deconstruction or faith deconstruction.

Postmodern theology, also known as the continental philosophy of religion, is a philosophical and theological movement that interprets Christian theology in light of postmodernism and various forms of post-Heideggerian thought, including post-structuralism, phenomenology, and deconstruction.

History

Postmodern theology emerged in the 1980s and 1990s when a handful of philosophers who took philosopher Martin Heidegger as a common point of departure began publishing influential books engaging with Christian theology. Some works of the era include Jean-Luc Marion's 1982 book God Without Being, Mark C. Taylor's 1984 book Erring, Charles Winquist's 1994 book Desiring Theology, John D. Caputo's 1997 book The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, and Carl Raschke's 2000 book The End of Theology.

There are at least two branches of postmodern theology, each of which has evolved around the ideas of particular post-Heideggerian continental philosophers. Those branches are radical orthodoxy and weak theology.

Radical orthodoxy

Main article: Radical orthodoxy

Radical orthodoxy is a branch of postmodern theology that has been influenced by the phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion, Paul Ricœur, and Michel Henry, among others.

Although radical orthodoxy is informally organized, its proponents often agree on a handful of propositions. First, there is no sharp distinction between reason on the one hand and faith or revelation on the other. In addition, the world is best understood through interactions with God, even though a full understanding of God is never possible. Those interactions include culture, language, history, technology, and theology. Further, God directs people toward truth, which is never fully available to them. In fact, a full appreciation of the physical world is only possible through a belief in transcendence. Finally, salvation is found through interactions with God and others.

Prominent advocates of radical orthodoxy include John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock, and Graham Ward.

Weak theology

Weak theology is a branch of postmodern theology that has been influenced by the deconstructive thought of Jacques Derrida, including Derrida's description of a moral experience he calls "the weak force." Weak theology rejects the idea that God is an overwhelming physical or metaphysical force. Instead, God is an unconditional claim without any force whatsoever. As a claim without force, the God of weak theology does not intervene in nature. As a result, weak theology emphasizes the responsibility of humans to act in this world here and now. John D. Caputo is a prominent advocate of the movement.

Leading thinkers

• John D. Caputo
• Richard Kearney
• Mario Kopić
• Jean-Luc Marion
• Françoise Meltzer
• John Milbank
• James Olthuis
• Catherine Pickstock
• Carl Raschke
• Peter Rollins
• Mary-Jane Rubenstein
• James K.A. Smith
• Mark C. Taylor
• Gabriel Vahanian
• Gianni Vattimo
• Charles Winquist
• Catherine Keller
• Mikhail Epstein

See also

• Christian revival
• Neo-orthodoxy
• Post-critical
  • Michael Polanyi
  • Postcritique
• Peter L. Berger
  • The Social Construction of Reality – 1966 book by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann
  • A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural – Book by Peter L. Berger
• John Deely, Catholic philosopher and semiotician (Postmodern philosophy#Definitional issues)
• Queer theology
• Religious pluralism
• Restoration movement
• Theopoetics – Interdisciplinary field of study
• Talal Asad – Anthropologist at the CUNY Graduate Center
• Richard Bauckham – British theologian (born 1946)
• Craig Bartholomew – South African academic
• Kevin Vanhoozer – American theologian and academic

Further reading

• Caputo, John D. (2004). "Jacques Derrida (1930–2004)", Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory, Vol. 6, No. 1, December 2004.
• Caputo, John D. The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-253-34704-1
• Caputo, John D. What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernity for the Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.
• Engel, Ulrich (2001). "Religion and Violence: Plea for a 'weak' theology in tempore belli", New Blackfriars, Vol. 82, No. 970, pp. 558–560, December 2001.
• Foster, Stephen (2019) "Theology as Repetition: John Macquarrie in Conversation" (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2019)
• Heltzel, Peter G. (2006). "The Weakness of God: A Review of John D. Caputo's The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event", Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory, Vol. 7, No. 2, Spring/Summer 2006.
• Marion, Jean-Luc. God Without Being. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
• Raschke, Carl (2000). The End of Theology. Denver, CO: The Davies Group, 2000. Originally published as The Alchemy of the Word: Language and the End of Theology, Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1979).
• Raschke, Carl (2006). "The Weakness of God... and of Theological Thought for that Matter", Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1, Winter 2006.
• Rubenstein, Mary-Jane (2009). Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009 [cloth], 2011 [paper]).
• Rubenstein, Mary-Jane (2018). Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018 [cloth], 2021 [paper]).
• Smith, James K.A. Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.
• Swain, Lincoln. The Why People: Faith, False Prophets and End Times Detroit: Atomic Quill Press, 2011.
• Taylor, Mark C. Erring: A Postmodern A/Theology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
• Taylor, Victor. "From Alchemy to Revolution: A Conversation with Carl A. Raschke", Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, Vol 12, No. 3, Spring 2014, 149-60.
• Winquist, Charles. Desiring Theology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.