From Radical Hermeneutics to the Weakness Of God

Abstract

Over course of three decades, American thinker John Caputo has proved a catalytic presence in English-language thought-through his teaching, his writings, his public discussions, his editorial work, and his conference organisation. By confronting, consistently and unwaveringly, English-speaking academia with fundamental significance of Continental philosophy, Caputo has contributed hugely to a substantial change in wider academic landscape; if, today, reference to, say, Heidegger, or even Derrida, is no longer considered as exotic (and questionable) as it once was, this is in no small part due to Caputo's multiform effort. Not that Caputo-now based at Syracuse University, after thirty-six years at Villanova-should be viewed as merely helping to disseminate French and German philosophy. His own thought, it should also be recognized, is an important and original fusion of a certain American vernacular with a European sensibility: his writings are clear and concrete (to extent of having a near-pragmatic quality about them); yet they are also cosmopolitan, catholic, and steeped in classical and Scholastic learning. Caputo's originality is more than a question of philosophical style, however. For, as well as of his approach, of Caputo's philosophical interests make clear his pioneering status. Specifically, it is in his long-standing concern to rub Continental thought theologically that Caputo has helped blaze philosophical trails (across Europe as much as America): from first of his monographs to achieve wide recognition and appreciation-on Heidegger and Aquinas'-to his most recent ruminations on weakness,2 Caputo has played a central role in contemporary thought towards religion (and vice versa). In Caputo's case, this turning toward has never been about replacing critical study with dogmatics or apologetics: as following dialogue makes plain, he wants philosophy to ask as much of religion as religion might of philosophy. The dialogue-the transcript of which we present below - was conducted as a public seminar at Mater Dei Institute, Dublin City University, Dublin, in summer of 2005, during a working tour of Ireland. Professor Caputo's interlocutor was Dr. Mark Dooley, formerly a Newman Scholar and Visiting Research Fellow at University College Dublin, and himself well known for works like The Politics of Exodus, Questioning God, and, not least, his collection of studies on Caputo's work, A Passion for Impossible? More recently, Dooley has also established a career as a commentator, within Irish media, on national and international affairs; robust and, at times, challengingly anti-liberal line he adopts as journalist is evident here in a fascinating and at times combative exchange with a philosopher who has never hidden his leftleaning sympathies. Dooley's provocative probing ensured that what unfolded was no exercise in flannel or vanity but, rather, a genuinely critical encounter. Situating God's Mark Dooley [hereafter MD]: Jack, it's now eighteen years since you published Radical Hermeneutics,4 your first major book in Continental thought and-not to denigrate quality of your previous books-the one that got you your name. Now you're publishing a book called The Weakness of God. Can we very briefly-before we get into nuts and bolts of thing-chart how you made trajectory from radical hermeneutics to this thing called the of God? Was weakness of God theory latent in Radical Hermeneutics! John Caputo [hereafter JC]: In retrospect, and I say this with advantage of hindsight, Radical Hermeneutics was a point in my work. It was book in which I really found my voice and it traced out course of all work that followed, especially in last tiiree chapters, where one can see a phenomenology of religion taking shape. …