If we look to the story of the prodigal son, we see both a case against substitutionary atonement, and a case for it.  On the one hand, we have a remorseful prodigal and a father who forgives without punishment, but at the same time we still have the offended protests of the good brother who … Conclusion: Encountering Caputo’s Cross and Khora

I am coming to the end of the anthology on and by Philosopher John Caputo. The key emphasis seems to be beyond substitutionary atonement to focus on loving widow, orphan. stranger and enemy as more important than self, and so in Luke-Acts Jesus and Stephen not only end their wrongful deaths with prayers for themselves … Religion and Phenomenology with Buckley and Caputo

We often wonder to what extent punishment is vengeance rather than justice.  Glazebrook suggests Yet punishment cannot undo harm. A jail sentence does not unrape the victim. A better world is not one wherein all crimes are paid for, but one in which harm-generating activities like crime are no longer one’s best option. The impossible, … Caputo and Glazebrook on Trying to Appease God’s Wrath vs Focus on Love of Undesirables

I’m continuing my reading of the Caputo anthology Cross and Khora, which is the first book in the Postmodernism and Ethics series that was left unfinished after David Goicoechea died. The deconstructive reading points to a context without privileging that context vs others.  So, you may read in an “author intention” context, trying to get … Caputo and Huntington on the Economy of Religion

As I’ve noted previously, traditionally, such as in the Gorgias, the Greeks saw Being as presence, and so we see houseness is “present” with the house.  But Derrida’s point is that presence is not just in itself, but is qualified (e.g., “merely present”).  Moreover, Being is going to presence according to various degrees of Beauty, … Plato, Aristotle, Heidegger and Derrida with the Postmodernism in Différance

I have been working on this long series of the Caputo postmodern religious anthology Cross and Khora. Today, let’s begin with the holy atheist, Have you ever wondered about all the potential mates you’ve had in your life why they thought you were great but didn’t love you back.  Clearly, you can’t will yourself to … The Holy Atheist: John Caputo and the Dark Night of the Soul

Kearney notes “The experience of God,” writes Caputo, “is to ‘see’ the hand of God in the course of things . . . to find a loving hand, a providential care where others see chance, so that when things happen they happen as a gift, not fortuitously but gratuitously . . . the gift is … Caputo with the Experience of God and Science.

Goicoechea (Key passages) The key is to be altruistic toward widow, orphan, stranger, and enemy as more important than yourself. But serving and suffering for each other is fraught with a symmetry that excludes the other: Judas, the Pharisees, and the Romans are not loved until they repent and enter the kingdom of love. But … (2/2) All Killer No Filler: Caputo Responds to Goicoechea and Hart

Caputo agrees with Sanders that the cross as a message about service no matter what: When Sanders goes on to say so very nicely that “the cross as a sacrifice is Jesus’s determination to live his life in the service of God come hell or high water or, in his case, Roman executioners,” I would … All Killer No Filler: Caputo Responds to Sanders About the Meaning of Good Friday

The Catholic liturgy held on Good Friday can seem puzzling if not positively repellent. Norms for the liturgy stipulate that during that day’s worship service a cross be displayed and that the priest and congregation “make a simple genuflection or perform some other sign of reverence according to local custom, for example, kissing the cross.” … (2/2) Analysis of Theresa Sanders’ essay Festivals of Holy Pain: In the Wake of Good Friday