What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church (The Church and Postmodern Culture) [Paperback]

John D. Caputo (Author), Brian McLaren (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2007 | Series: The Church and Postmodern Culture

This provocative addition to The Church and Postmodern Culture series offers a lively rereading of Charles Sheldon's In His Steps as a constructive way forward. John D. Caputo introduces the notion of why the church needs deconstruction, positively defines deconstruction's role in renewal, deconstructs idols of the church, and imagines the future of the church in addressing the practical implications of this for the church's life through liturgy, worship, preaching, and teaching. Students of philosophy, theology, religion, and ministry, as well as others interested in engaging postmodernism and the emerging church phenomenon, will welcome this provocative, non-technical work.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Many in the church who are wrestling with ministry in a postmodern era view deconstruction as a negative aspect of the postmodern movement. But John Caputo, one of the leading philosophers of religion in America and a leading voice on religion and postmodernism, sees it differently. In this lively and provocative analysis, he argues that in his own way Jesus himself was a deconstructionist and that applying deconstruction to the church can be a positive move toward renewal.

"Caputo brilliantly manages to bring thought to life and life to thought. He wears his learning and scholarship so lightly that one has the impression of returning to a flesh-and-blood world where Jesus deconstructs and reconstructs our lives. Challenging, compassionate, witty, and wise. This book is compulsory reading for anyone concerned about the future of Christianity."
--Richard Kearney, Charles Seelig Professor in Philosophy, Boston College

"Let this book settle the debate once and for all: postmodern philosophy does not preclude true Christian faith. In fact, taken rightly, postmodernism leads not to nihilistic relativism but to a robust faith in the Savior, who himself was bent on deconstruction. Caputo is a sheep in wolf's clothing."
--Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, author of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

"This is a marvelous little book. It enables readers to understand deconstruction as the hermeneutics of the kingdom of God and provides a glimpse of what this concept might look like in the hands of Jesus as applied to the church. This will be difficult therapy, and many of us will be inclined to resist. However, let us remember that while discipline is painful in the moment, it produces a harvest of peace and righteousness in the long run. May the church learn from the wisdom found in these pages."
--John R. Franke, professor of theology, Biblical Seminary

About the Author

John D. Caputo (PhD, Bryn Mawr College) is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Humanities and professor of philosophy at Syracuse University. He is the author of numerous books, including The Weakness of God (winner of the 2007 AAR Award for Excellence in Constructive-Reflective Study of Religion), On Religion, The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, and Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801031362
• ISBN-13: 978-0801031366
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John D. Caputo, the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus (Syracuse University) and the David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy Emeritus (Villanova 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 on a book entitled "The Insistence of God," a sequel to "The Weakness of God," and 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 specialized 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 41 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Sympathetic Introduction December 17, 2007

By Douglas H. Hunter

Format:Paperback

I take the publication of this book as an announcement of sorts. It tells us that what could be loosely called post structural Christianity is going public. There have been a number of other books that deal with Derrida's work in the Christian context but What Would Jesus Deconstruct? is the first book I know of that attempts to outline the profound sympathy between Derrida's later work and Christianity in a readable, non-academic way. That alone makes this an important book.

The wonderful thing for me about this text is that Caputo did a great job selecting the ideas and themes from Derrida that can be used as a lens through which to read scripture and address Christian faith. These ideas open up a variety of potentials, and energies that just don't have the same resonance when examined without the tools that post structuralism generally, and Derrida specifically provide us. Some of these themes include the journey, the unavoidable nature of impasses; the idea that the moment when we are faced with the impossible is the exact moment when real potentials are opened. He also addresses Derrida's unique understanding of justice, the economy of the gift and hospitality, to name a few.

What makes Caputo's summary of Derrida useful is that it directs our attention to the structure of how themes such as love, or loving God, or one's neighbor (as only one of many potential examples) are articulated in scripture but also the significant pragmatic and philosophical challenges posed by such themes, their aporias, and the difficulties we face when we are willing to take this kind of challenge seriously. This is important work and frankly it strikes me that Christianity in America today is often dead set against doing this kind of work.... This leads to another reason we need a book such as this. At no other point in my lifetime has Christianity been so defined by political affiliations, reduced to partisan politics in the most cynical way. The all-to-common and easy conflation of Christianity with specific political views means that Christianity is often robbed of its content and of the specific challenges it poses to us. Addressing Christianity through a Deconstructive hermeneutic is an important way to counteract this trend.

All that being said I think the book has two significant problems. The first is the way it describes its themes. Caputo often under describes them to the point where I'm not sure the uninitiated will be able to see what is so remarkable about the interaction between post structuralism and Christianity.

The other difficulty I have with the book is the way it addresses politics in the final chapter. Politics desperately needs addressing but the way he does it here is disappointing. He spends a great deal of time simply beating up the Christian right. Granted my own politics area very similar to Caputo's but in the last chapter he obviously ignores his own call for a strong argument, and his criticisms are not deconstructive in nature at all. They are, more or less, common leftist critiques. The problem with this is that the full scope and impact of deconstruction is masked, and readers are definitely going to get the idea that deconstruction is merely a patsy for leftist politics. I think Caputo knows better and deconstruction deserves better. There are times when his readings could have become more vital, such as in his discussion of abortion, where he hints at the potentials of a deconstructive engagement; but for whatever reason he chooses not to develop those potentials.

So in the end I am ambivalent about this book. This book is necessary, and I hope it will get readers interested in the very rich interaction between Derrida and Christianity, but at the same time readers should seek out what's missing, and not be willing to take Caputo's word for it when he reduces deconstruction to the political. Caputo is right that there is good news in post modernism for the Church, and I hope more people will be willing to seek it out. Read more ›

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Deconstruction and renewal April 8, 2009

By Helen Hancox

Format:Paperback

This was a fascinating and enjoyable book. John D Caputo's writing style was always engaging and the book was very easy to read for a philosophy book on a fairly complex subject. He looks at Charles Sheldon's book 'In His Steps', published in 1896, alongside works by Jacques Derrida on deconstruction, weaving these two together to get a handle on how Jesus might deconstruct the church - not demolishing it in a negative way but drawing out peace and righteousness and the kingdom of God from two millennia of post-Jesus church building.

Caputo writes very much from his personal opinion and I enjoyed many of his amusing asides. He talks incisively about many of the failings of the religious Right, although also has things to say about the weakness and ineptness of the Left. I felt that the book was rather weighed down by its series preface/foreword/acknowledgements/introduction before it began, and that the real meat of the content didn't appear until fairly late on in the short book at chapter 5. That chapter was a brilliant read, however, deconstructing the church through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount, and was worth the price of the book alone.

This is an excellent read for those interested in a different angle in the postmodern debate and explains enough that those unfamiliar with deconstruction should understand it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Prophetic Look at Philosophy and the Church November 12, 2009

By T. T. Turner II

Format:Paperback

John Caputo's newest book, the second in a multi-author series called The Church and Post-modern Culture, is an attempt to deconstruct the underpinnings of emerging Protestantism in the United States, namely Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism. The book is fashioned not so much as a book about postmodernism and deconstruction as a postmodern and deconstructive book itself. Caputo places this book within the oeuvre of postmodern theory and criticism, his book is built upon a pun, What Would Jesus Deconstruct? is a very different rendering of WWJD, the popular acronym for "What Would Jesus Do?" The popular Evangelical phrase is the subtitle to the book Caputo sees as the catalyst of the modernism within Evangelicalism and the Religious Right, William Sheldon's In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? Using this century old morality tale as the founding narrative of the Christian Right (which will henceforth be used as the umbrella term for Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism, the Religious Right and Conservative Protestantism as Caputo does in his text), Caputo sets out to deconstruct "What Would Jesus Do?" by asking, "What Would Jesus Deconstruct?"

Caputo takes several stabs and jabs at the Religious Right in a cynical and enlightened humor that is necessary within a text that seeks to bring postmodern philosophy and criticism to lay persons. Within this 138 page book the terse barrage of philosophy needs some comic relief in order to keep the lay reader from blowing a fuse. Caputo casts deconstruction as a journey, for "deconstruction is adventure, is risky business, as is life. So life and deconstruction go hand and hand" (53).... The traditional viewpoint of deconstruction, as it is referenced in pop culture, is the obliteration of meaning, which is not exactly true, no matter what Chuck Colson or John McArthur tells you. Caputo deconstructs this amateur notion of deconstruction, and places his own spin on things, branding deconstruction as "the hermeneutics of the kingdom of God," what Derrida has coined the gift of the possible from the impossible. (58) Caputo spends much of his time in the book making a thought out attempt to align postmodernity and deconstruction as a radical, prophetic hermeneutic of the coming kingdom against the behemoth of the modernity-steeped, Enlightenment-drunk Christian Right and its lowest common denominator "What Would Jesus Do?" which is so vague it is rendered meaningless. Caputo makes his case that What Jesus Would Deconstruct is not a hypothetical, it is right in the text: he has come to uproot the powers that be, to banish the status quo, to make the powerless have power, the poor become rich, the needy become clothed, all in such a radical spiritual act of love that the whole thing seems impossible, and that is really what deconstruction is about, the impossible being possible, the kingdom of God making a heaven on earth out of a hell on earth.

Caputo places his hermeneutic of the kingdom of God as opposite to the earthly church, which Caputo (rightly) states needs to be deconstructed as well. The church has far too often been the arbiter of power and a rod of injustice against the innocent, which can be seen in the usual parade of Crusades, papal misconduct, and religious wars. Caputo pushes farther, and calls the church "Plan B," making the case that when Jesus ascended into heaven and said the kingdom of God would come soon, the apostles didn't know what to do after waiting so long and ended up starting the church. Postmodernists love to be radical and push the envelope, and Caputo hardly argues to disband the church and have spiritual anarchy, but what Caputo constructs as a "Plan B" reeks of some postmodern dispensationalism where the church is a stepping stone of mediocrity until Christ returns. I doubt Caputo genuinely believes this, yet he does not offer much explanation concerning his harsh terminology.

Moving beyond the pragmatism of "What Would Jesus Do?" and its meaningless hypotheticals (What Would Jesus Drink? What Would Jesus Drive? What Would Jesus use to clean his bathtub?) is the call to become Christ in totality, to be a co-deconstructor with Christ, for

That is why we require hermeneutics. It is our responsibility to breathe with the spirit of Jesus, to implement, to invent, to convert this poetics into a praxis, which means to make the political order resonate with the radicality of someone whose vision was not precisely political. We need hermeneutics, which means understanding linked to historical context, and deconstruction, which means an interpretive theory that is mad about justice, in order to make this translation. (95)

Deconstruction, in Caputo's text, is the means in which the kingdom of God comes forth, for deconstruction is the way we rip apart the injustice, violence, and political power of our world in (and through) Christ. Caputo meanders his way through some of the touchy, flashpoint issues in the culture wars, and shows how deconstruction breaks down the majority narrative and, when wielded as the hermeneutics of God, introduces radical justice, hospitality, and love where it is most impossible and most sacrificial, the gift of impossibility through the impossible God-man, who died and came back in the impossible resurrection.

Interestingly enough, Caputo takes what is now the classically liberal view on homosexuality in the Church, that we should let radical love supersede notions of sin. As a practicing deconstructionist, Caputo misses a grand opportunity to deconstruct the West's very notion of homosexuality itself, that, as Foucault showed in his History of Sexuality, that homosexuality as a lifestyle is a social construct of the West that is scarcely one hundred years old (for some great proof make your way to the Oxford English Dictionary, which shows the first use of the word homosexual was 1892). Caputo does not deconstruct the Christian Right's view of homosexuality, he merely regurgitates Christian and secular liberalism.

Caputo ends his treatise with a thrilling, if not a tad scary, contemplation of how deconstruction re-inserts doubt into the Christian life, and that within the Church is a remnant of people who live the deconstructive lifestyle of radical love and hospitality amongst the majority Church which is about hierarchy, power, and comfort. The role of doubt in the midst of faith, as the reason for faith, and even as that which is beyond faith is a kind of postmodern negative theology, an acceptance that we cannot prove God, prove Christ, prove our faith beyond a shadow of a doubt---and once we accept this we are then capable of living like Christ for we know longer cling to comfortable legalism or "What Would Jesus Do?" mentalities. Only in a postmodern world does doubt lead to freedom to realize our impossibility which is only answered in the wondrous mess of impossibility which is the church, our faith, Christ, the Spirit, the Father, and the coming kingdom of God. Read more ›

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Humorous Irreverent Intro to Christian Deconstruction May 10, 2008

By Alwyn Lau

Format:Paperback

This book pulls together almost everything Caputo's written on deconstruction related to Christianity. I loved it especially after having ploughed through Caputo's 'Prayers & Tears of Jacques Derrida' and his 'More Radical Hermeneutics', and aching for more clarity.

Caputo writes like his mentor and model, Derrida. Full of -isms, weird sentences, twists and turns, aphorisms, puns, etc. WWJD follows suit but in much less intensive manner. And, yes, even a newbie to postmodernism would enjoy the book, if one gives it a fair presentation.

Caputo puts forth deconstruction at the method/approach of the hermeneutics of the kingdom of God, a tool of God's theo-poetic reign. This is a way of treating the interpretation of Scripture as a fresh/new kind of 'poetry', where language takes on a life of its own and resists our rigid categories, presuppositions and the overall human desire to draw absolute conclusions. Deconstruction is God's way of hermeneutically breaking-in into our world and its prejudices, fossilisation and comfort zones. This shakes the faith, laughs at our certainties and mocks our pride - and in so doing seeks to return faith back to faith.

Caputo then takes nice humourous shots at the Bush administration and many not-so-nice ones at the 'Christian Right' of USA. He then gives his take on abortion, homosexuality, poverty and some other politically hot (American)issues. The central thrust of Caputo's form of deconstruction (which is a much more fun and vibrant kind, much more than, say, the deconstruction of Mark C. Taylor whose works usually stem from the 'death of God') is the event, the advent, of the Other.... The Other is the voices we want to silence, the powerless we want to keep in their place, the cries we ignore, the (always emerging) future horizon of possibilites. It's almost like the heavenly utopia of perfect justice and forgiveness we will never attain but which keeps us striving.

The book is a good introduction to deconstruction (if one is unfamiliar with the term used in a Christian context) and an essential part of an on-going conversation which (curious, interested, hooked) readers would do well to continue in their own faith-communities. Read more ›