Mystical Element in Heidegger's Thought [Paperback]

John D. Caputo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1986 | ISBN-10: 0823211533 | ISBN-13: 978-0823211531

This book is a model of philosophical and Heideggerian scholarship. Avoiding the extremes of abject worship and facile refutation, it moves into the heart of the later Heideggers work.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John D. Caputo is the David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University and is editor of Fordham University Press' Perspectives in Continental Philosophy Series.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press (January 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823211533
• ISBN-13: 978-0823211531
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #679,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John D. Caputo, the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion (Syracuse University) is a hybrid philosopher/theologian who works in the area of radical theology. Prof. Caputo is working on a theory of "theo-poetics," by which he means a poetics of the "event" harbored in the name of God, a notion that depends upon a reworking of the notions of event in Derrida and Deleuze. His past books have attempted to persuade us that hermeneutics goes all the way down ("Radical Hermeneutics"), that Derrida is a thinker to be reckoned with by theology ("The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida"), and that theology is best served by getting over its love affair with power and authority and embracing what Caputo calls, following St. Paul, "The Weakness of God." His notion of the weakness of God, an expression that needs to be interpreted carefully by following what he means by "event," is reducible neither to an orthodox notion of kenosis nor to a death of God theology (Altizer, Zizek), although it bears comparison to both. He has also addressed wider-than-academic audiences in "On Religion," "Philosophy and Theology," and "What Would Jesus Deconstruct?" and has an interest in interacting with working church groups like Ikon and the Emergent Church. He is currently working in a book on the weakness of our frail and mortal flesh, probably to be entitled "The Fate of all Flesh: A Theology of the Event, II." At Syracuse, Professor Caputo specializes in continental philosophy of religion, which means both working on radical approaches to religion and theology in the light of contemporary phenomenology, hermeneutics and deconstruction, and tracking down the traces of radical religious and theological motifs in contemporary continental philosophy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comparison of Heigegger's later thought to Meister Eckhart, November 17, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Mystical Element in Heidegger's Thought (Paperback)

John Caputo investigates the claim of many modern philosphers
that Heidegger became a mystic in the latter part of his life.
Caputo performs a careful analysis of this claim by looking
at the writings of Heidegger as they relate to a true German
mystic, Meister Eckhart. Does Heidegger's relationship
between being and Being equate to Eckhart's soul and God?
Does his use of "Gelassenheit", a term of Eckhart's meaning
detachment, show a common belief? Caputo's book works on
many levels. It brings together two of the great "book ends"
of Germany philosophy, spanning the 14th to 20th centuries.
And, just as Caputo does a wonderful job of conveying Heidegger's
thought, so, too, he captures the mysticism of Eckhart. It
was this which actually appealed to me more, and I believe
the book can be an excellent introduction into the thinking
of one of the greatest mystics of all time -- Eckhart.

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading of a Neglected and necessary Aspect of Heidegger, November 3, 2011

By 

Matthew T. Giobbi - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mystical Element in Heidegger's Thought (Paperback)

John D. Caputo offers a masterful dialectic between 13th Century thinker Meister Eckhart and 20th Century dweller Martin Heidegger. This is an essential book in understanding Heidegger's concern with disenchantment, the contemporary denial of mystery, and the necessity for the poetic mystical. Caputo also (possibly unintentionally) demonstrates the imperative study of Heidegger's Der Satz vom Grund (The Principle of Reason (Studies in Continental Thought)) for any reader. This book explores an requisite and often neglected aspect of Martin Heidegger's thinking. This text could also be understood as a long needed stepping stone between Carl Jung's exploration in alchemy and Heidegger's thought.

Matthew Giobbi, Ph.D.