What to Believe? : : Twelve Brief Lessons in Radical Theology / / / John D. Caputo.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2023
• VerfasserIn: Caputo, John D.,
• Author: Caputo, John D.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : : Columbia University Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

If you no longer "believe in God," the Supreme Being of classical theology, or you never did in the first place, is there anything you still ought to believe, anything you should cherish unconditionally, no matter what? In this lively and accessible book, addressed to believers, "recovering" believers, disbelievers, nonbelievers, and "nones" alike-to anyone in search of what they really do believe-the acclaimed philosopher and theologian John D. Caputo seeks out what there is to believe, with or without religion.Writing in a lucid and witty style, Caputo offers a bold account of a "radical theology" that is anything but what the word theology suggests to most people. His point of departure is autobiographical, describing growing up in the world of pre-Vatican II Catholicism, serving as an altar boy, and spending four years in a Catholic religious order after high school. Caputo places Augustine's Confessions, Tillich's Dynamics of Faith, and Jacques Derrida and postmodern theory in conversation in the service of what he calls the "mystical sense of life." He argues that radical theology is not simply an academic exercise but describes a concrete practice immediately relevant to the daily lives of believers and nonbelievers alike. What to Believe? is an engaging introduction to radical theology for all readers curious about what religion can mean today.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- This Is How the World Began -- First Week -- Lesson One God Does Not Exist -- Lesson Two Bridge- Builders and Ground- Diggers -- Lesson Three That's Pantheism, That's Horrible! -- Lesson Four Do Radical Theologians Pray? -- Lesson Five The Mystical Sense of Life -- Lesson Six Who Do They Say Jesus Is? -- Second Week -- Lesson Seven Suppose Everything Just Vanished? -- Lesson Eight What Is Really Going On? -- Lesson Nine What Is Going On in the Name of God? -- Lesson Ten Whether God Will Have Been -- Lesson Eleven Making Ourselves Worthy of What Is Happening to Us -- Lesson Twelve So What? -- A Parting Word (or Two): Yes, Yes -- Further Reading -- Index