John D. Caputo stretches his project as a radical theologian to new limits in this groundbreaking book. Mapping out his summative theological position, he identifies with Martin Luther to take on notions of the hidden god, the theology of the cross, confessional theology, and natural theology. Caputo also confronts the dark side of the cross with its correlation to lynching and racial and sexual discrimination. Caputo is clear that he is not writing as any kind of orthodox Lutheran but is instead engaging with a radical view of theology, cosmology, and poetics of the cross. Readers will recognize Caputo's signature themes-hermeneutics, deconstruction, weakness, and the call-as well as his unique voice as he writes about moral life and our strivings for joy against contemporary society and politics.

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction: A Completely Different Story, A Theologian Worthy of the Name

1. The Weakness of God: A Radical Theology of the Cross

2. Wounded Glory, Victory in Defeat

3. From Luther to Derrida: A Note on an Unlikely Story

4. The Meaning of Suffering and Political Theology

5. The Cross and the Lynching Tree: The Politics of the Cross

6. From Theology to Theopoetics: An Excursus on Method in Theology

7. Phaenomenologia Crucis: From Transcendence to Transascendence

8. The Existance of God: Unconditional without Sovereignty

9. Deus Absconditus: A God who Deconstructs Himself in His Ipseity

10. The Protestant Principle

Interlude I: The Cloud of Anonymity

11. The Cosmic Cross: The Problem and the Mystery

12. Planetary Entanglement: Cusa, Keller and the Possibility of the Impossible

13. Cosmic Disentanglement: The Cross God Has to Bear

14. Saying What the Thing Is: On Onto-Hermeneutical Events

Interlude II: A Visit to the Planet of the Philosopher

15. Eros and Thanatos: When Love is Worthy of the Name

16. Difficult Glory: The Axial Affirmation

A Concluding Doxology

Index

John D. Caputo is Thomas J. Watson Professor Emeritus of Religion at Syracuse University and David R. Cook Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Villanova University. He is author of many books, including The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event, The Insistence of God: A Theology of Perhaps, Hoping Against Hope: Confessions of a Postmodern Pilgrim, and Truth: Philosophy in Transit.