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

Sanders analyzes Paul’s cross of Christ not as a substitutionary atonement payment but akin to the near sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. Paul does indeed use the language of the priestly temple sacrifice to explain the meaning of the death of Jesus. And yet I see no sense in his writings that sacrifice has anything … Analysis of Theresa Sanders’ essay Festivals of Holy Pain: In the Wake of Good Friday

To end this mini-series, I’d like to talk a bit about Jesus and Philosophy. In the previous posts I looked at atonement vs forgiveness with Plato and Aristotle, and here I will think more generally with Jesus as a Philosopher in Mark. If Walsh’s thesis is correct, then the Gospels arose out of networks of … APPENDIX: The Weakness of God and the Iconic Logic of the Cross by John Caputo – Jesus as Ancient Philosopher

Last Time: (1/2) Analysis: The Weakness of God and the Iconic Logic of the Cross by John Caputo I practice astrology; voodoo; am a Pentecostal snake handler; an evangelical fundamentalist; Baptist; Catholic; etc.  As baffling as it may seem, many people treat their pet superstitions as a badge of courage and normalcy, just look at … (2/2) Analysis: The Weakness of God and the Iconic Logic of the Cross by John Caputo