The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion without Religion (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion) [Paperback]

John D. Caputo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 1997 | Series: Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion

"Caputo's book is riveting.... A singular achievement of stylistic brio and impeccable scholarship, it breaks new ground in making a powerful case for treating Derrida as homo religiosis.... There can be no mistaking the importance of Caputo's work." —Edith Wyschogrod

"No one interested in Derrida, in Caputo, or in the larger question of postmodernism and religion can afford to ignore this pathbreaking study. Taking full advantage of the most recent and least discussed writings of Derrida, it offers a careful and comprehensive account of the religious dimension of Derrida's thought." —Merold Westphal

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... the most thorough and illuminating study to date of the decisive role played by the religious within Jacques Derrida's writings." Journal of Religion "The question of the relation between Derrida and religion has gradually been attracting attention. Caputo ... offers us here what may be the definitive study of this issue... Highly recommended." Choice "The book is a feast of wordplay, but it is wordplay the mind can feed on... a landmark publication." --Journal of the American Academy of Religion "Caputo's book is riveting... A singular achievement of stylistic brio and impeccable scholarship, it breaks new ground in making a powerful case for treating Derrida as homo religiosis... There can be no mistaking the importance of Caputo's work." -- Edith Wyschogrod "No one interested in Derrida, in Caputo, or in the larger question of postmodernism and religion can afford to ignore this pathbreaking study. Taking full advantage of the most recent and least discussed writings of Derrida, it offers a careful and comprehensive account of the religious dimension of Derrida's thought." -- Merold Westphal

About the Author

John D. Caputo is David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University. He is author of Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project; Against Ethics: Contributions to a Poetics of Obligation with Constant Reference to Deconstruction; and Demythologizing Heidegger.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (September 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253211123
• ISBN-13: 978-0253211125
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,442 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.

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37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A faithful reading is a risky reading . . ., July 23, 1998

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This review is from: The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion without Religion (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion) (Paperback)

In this exposition of Derrida's recent writings, Caputo continues his work of making the trouble-making tools of deconstruction generally available. The clarity of his presentation is matched by his playfulness. Theme by theme, he teases out the revolutionary possibilities of Derrida's "religion," freeing words and phrases from jargon and obscurity. This book offers the gift of the relevance of Derrida for "faith." Caputo's own "Edifying Divertissments" are michieviously beautiful.