Postmodern Theology
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Postmodern theology, also known as the continental philosophy of religion, is a philosophical and theological movement that interprets
theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
in light of post- Heideggerian continental philosophy, including
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
,
post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
, and deconstruction.


History

Postmodern theology emerged in the 1980s and 1990s when a handful of philosophers who took philosopher
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...
as a common point of departure began publishing influential books on
theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
. Some of the more notable works of the era include
Jean-Luc Marion Jean-Luc Marion (born 3 July 1946) is a French philosopher and Roman Catholic theologian. Marion is a former student of Jacques Derrida whose work is informed by patristic and mystical theology, phenomenology, and modern philosophy.Horner ...
'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 Carl A. Raschke (born 1944) is an American philosopher and theologian. Raschke is a Past Chair and Professor of Religious Studies Department at the University of Denver, specializing in continental philosophy, the philosophy of religion and t ...
'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 Continental philosophy is a term used to describe some philosophers and philosophical traditions that do not fall under the umbrella of analytic philosophy. However, there is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Pri ...
. Those branches are radical orthodoxy and weak theology.


Radical orthodoxy

Radical orthodoxy is a branch of postmodern theology that has been influenced by the
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
of
Jean-Luc Marion Jean-Luc Marion (born 3 July 1946) is a French philosopher and Roman Catholic theologian. Marion is a former student of Jacques Derrida whose work is informed by patristic and mystical theology, phenomenology, and modern philosophy.Horner ...
, Paul Ricœur, and
Michel Henry Michel Henry (; 10 January 1922 – 3 July 2002) was a French philosopher, phenomenologist and novelist. He wrote five novels and numerous philosophical works. He also lectured at universities in France, Belgium, the United States, and Japa ...
, 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 Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
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 Jean-Luc Marion (born 3 July 1946) is a French philosopher and Roman Catholic theologian. Marion is a former student of Jacques Derrida whose work is informed by patristic and mystical theology, phenomenology, and modern philosophy.Horner ...
* Françoise Meltzer * John Milbank * James Olthuis *
Carl Raschke Carl A. Raschke (born 1944) is an American philosopher and theologian. Raschke is a Past Chair and Professor of Religious Studies Department at the University of Denver, specializing in continental philosophy, the philosophy of religion and t ...
*
Peter Rollins Peter Rollins (born 31 March 1973) is a Northern Irish writer, public speaker, philosopher, producer and radical theologian. Drawing largely from various strands of continental philosophy, Rollins' early work operated broadly from within the t ...
* Mary-Jane Rubenstein * James K.A. Smith * Mark C. Taylor * Gabriel Vahanian *
Gianni Vattimo Gianteresio Vattimo (born 4 January 1936) is an Italian philosopher and politician. Biography Gianteresio Vattimo was born in Turin, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under the existentialist Luigi Pareyson at the University of Turin, and graduat ...
* Charles Winquist * Catherine Keller *
Mikhail Epstein Mikhail Naumovich Epstein (also transliterated Epshtein; russian: Михаи́л Нау́мович Эпште́йн; born 21 April 1950) is a Russian-American literary scholar and essayist who is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Cultural Theo ...


See also

* Christian revival *
Neo-orthodoxy In Christianity, Neo-orthodoxy or Neoorthodoxy, also known as theology of crisis and dialectical theology, was a theological movement developed in the aftermath of the First World War. The movement was largely a reaction against doctrines of ...
* Post-critical (
Michael Polanyi Michael Polanyi (; hu, Polányi Mihály; 11 March 1891 – 22 February 1976) was a Hungarian-British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He argued that positivism supplies ...
) **
Postcritique In literary criticism and cultural studies, postcritique is the attempt to find new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of critique, critical theory, and ideological criticism. Such methods have been characterized as a ...
*
Peter L. Berger Peter Ludwig Berger (17 March 1929 – 27 June 2017) was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, study of modernization, and theor ...
, Lutheran theologian and co-author of ''
The Social Construction of Reality ''The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge'' (1966), by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, proposes that social groups and individual persons who interact with each other, within in a system of social classes, ...
'' *
John Deely John Deely (April 26, 1942 – January 7, 2017) was an American philosopher and semiotician. He was a professor of philosophy at Saint Vincent College and Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Prior to this, he held the Rudman Chair of Gra ...
,
Catholic philosopher This is a list of Catholic philosophers and theologians whose Catholicism is important to their works. The names are ordered by date of birth in order to give a rough sense of influence between thinkers. Ancient (born before 500 AD) *Ignatius o ...
and
semiotician Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...
( Postmodern philosophy#Definitional issues) *
Queer theology Queer theology is a theological method that has developed out of the philosophical approach of queer theory, built upon scholars such as Marcella Althaus-Reid, Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Judith Butler. Queer theol ...
, Foucault-influenced theological camp *
Religious pluralism Religious pluralism is an attitude or policy regarding the diversity of religious belief systems co-existing in society. It can indicate one or more of the following: * Recognizing and tolerating the religious diversity of a society or coun ...
*
Restoration movement The Restoration Movement (also known as the American Restoration Movement or the Stone–Campbell Movement, and pejoratively as Campbellism) is a Christian movement that began on the United States frontier during the Second Great Awakening (17 ...
*
Theopoetics Theopoetics in its modern context is an interdisciplinary field of study that combines elements of poetic analysis, process theology, narrative theology, and postmodern philosophy. Originally developed by Stanley Hopper and David Leroy Mill ...
*
Talal Asad Talal Asad (born 1932) is a Saudi-born cultural anthropologist who is currently a professor of anthropology at the City University of New York Graduate Center. His prolific body of work mainly focuses on religiosity, Middle Eastern studies, po ...
, Foucauldian Islamic writer


Notes


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).

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
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2011
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. *Rubenstein, Mary-Jane (2018).
Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters
' (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018
loth Loth may refer to: People Given name * King Lot, figure in Arthurian legend *Loth Schout (1600–1655), Dutch brewer Surname *Agnete Loth (1921–1990), editor and translator of Old Icelandic texts *Andreas Loth (born 1972), German ice hockey pl ...
2021
aper Aper may refer to: People * Aper (grammarian), 1st century Greek grammarian * Marcus Aper, 1st century Roman orator * Trosius Aper, 2nd century Roman grammarian and Latin tutor to Marcus Aurelius * Gaius Septimius Severus Aper (ca. 175–211/2 ...
. *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. Christian theological movements Christian philosophy Types of existentialism Postmodern theory
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
Christian continental philosophers and theologians Religious existentialism