Books by John D. Caputo

Is anything ever not an interpretation? Does interpretation go all the way down? Is there such a thing as a pure fact that is interpretation-free? If not, how are we supposed to know what to think and do? These tantalizing questions are tackled by renowned American thinker John D Caputo in this wide-reaching exploration of what the traditional term ''hermeneutics'' can mean in a postmodern, twenty-first century world. As a contemporary of Derrida''s and longstanding champion of rethinking the disciplines of theology and philosophy, for decades Caputo has been forming alliances across disciplines and drawing in readers with his compelling approach to what he calls "radical hermeneutics." In this new introduction, drawing upon a range of thinkers from Heidegger to the Parisian "1968ers" and beyond, he raises a series of probing questions about the challenges of life in the postmodern and maybe soon to be ''post-human'' world.''

After a detailed analysis of just what radical theology means, as a concept and in its relationship to traditional theology, this volume offers a selection of essays written for both academic and wider audiences which show aim at catching radical theology in action, in the church and in the culture at large.

Claims that we are not born into this world hard-wired to know Being, Truth, or the Good, and we are not vessels of a Divine, or other omnipotent supernatural force. This animated study by one of America's leading continental philosophers equally tears down and resuscitates religion and philosophy.

John D. Caputo has a long career as one of the preeminent postmodern philosophers in America. Caputo now reflects on his spiritual journey from a Catholic altar boy in 1950s Philadelphia to a philosopher after the death of God. Part spiritual autobiography, part homily on what he calls the nihilism of grace, Hoping against Hope calls believers and nonbelievers alike to participate in the praxis of the kingdom of God, which Caputo says we must pursue without why.

The purpose of the present study is to undertake a confrontation of the thought of Martin Heidegger and of Thomas Aquinas on the question of Being and the problem of metaphysics.

What is 'truth' in today's freewheeling, pluralistic world, without certainties or fixed ideas? Does it lie in the Reason of Descartes and Kant? Is it Derrida's idea of an event, still being made? Or, according to Nietzsche, an ensemble of fictions? Internationally renowned philosopher John D. Caputo explores truth in the postmodern age.

The Insistence of God presents the provocative idea that God does not exist, God insists, while God's existence is a human responsibility, which may or may not happen. For John D. Caputo, God's existence is haunted by "e;perhaps,"e; which does not signify indecisiveness but an openness to risk, to the unforeseeable. Perhaps constitutes a theology of what is to come and what we cannot see coming. Responding to current critics of continental philosophy, Caputo explores the materiality of perhaps and the promise of the world. He shows how perhaps can become a new theology of the gaps God opens.

* Combines readings from classic authors such as Heidegger, Derrida, and Irigaray with original selections from contemporary scholars. * Devotes attention to feminist theology. * Features excerpts from the famous debate between Jean--Luc Marion and Dominique Janicaud about the "theological turn" of French phenomenology. .

Applying an ever more radical hermeneutics (including Husserlian and Heideggerian phenomenology, Derridian deconstruction, and feminism), John D. Caputo breaks down the name of God in this irrepressible book. Instead of looking at God as merely a name, Caputo views it as an event, or what the name conjures or promises in the future. For Caputo, the event exposes God as weak, unstable, and barely functional. While this view of God flies in the face of most religions and philosophies, it also puts up a serious challenge to fundamental tenets of theology and ontology. Along the way, Caputo's readings of the New Testament, especially of Paul's view of the Kingdom of God, help to support the "e;weak force"e; theory. This penetrating work cuts to the core of issues and questions-What is the nature of God? What is the nature of being? What is the relationship between God and being? What is the meaning of forgiveness, faith, piety, or transcendence?-that define the terrain of contemporary philosophy of religion.