Table Of Content“A heartfelt, pragmatic, and eminently realistic argument about how one might con- K
tinue to think about—and even dedicate one’s life to—God after the ‘death’ or ‘disap-
e
pearance’ of God over the last hundred years or so. . . . Richard Kearney wants to see A
a
N A T H E I S M
what is left of God, in the time after God, and he does so superbly well.” R
James Wood, The New Yorker n
e
“I enjoyed Kearney’s book tremendously, especially the ana theme: the distinction be-
y
tween going on believing as before or believing again. This is a profound distinction
for our age. The possibilities opened up by the ana offer a large palette of expanding
choices combining and recombining new and old positions of belief and nonbelief.”
{ }
R E TUR NI N G TO GOD AFTER GOD
chaRles TayloR, author of A Secular Age
“Numerous dogmatic believers possess the consummate art of rendering God utterly
insupportable to any free spirit . . . while certain atheists can be so obtuse in their sci-
entific utilitarianism that one feels like converting at the nearest altar. It is to avoid
these extremes that the Irish philosopher Richard Kearney has written this remark-
able hermeneutics of faith. . . . One must salute this thought-provoking book written
with rare honesty and openness of mind.”
Le Monde A
“I find the notion of anatheism extremely pertinent as a way of witnessing the death
N
of the death of God (a double privative) while opening a third way: a path beyond both
theism and atheism, beyond metaphysics and religion, which returns to the possibil-
A
ity of the divine event as such.”
Jean-luc maRion, author of God Without Being T
“An exciting, imaginative, and robust account of the life of faith in the postmodern H
world. Kearney moves with ease across a breathtaking amount of literature and cul-
tures in an effort to retrieve a more mature and complex faith, beyond both doubt E
and dogmatism, to find the sacred in the secular, to see God in the world. This book is
I
everything we have come to expect from Kearney—clear, fascinating, and engaging,
S
all in all a major contribution to the contemporary continental philosophy of religion.”
John d. capuTo, coauthor of After the Death of God. M
God after God—ana-theos—is a moment of creative “not knowing” signifying a break
with former sureties and inviting the forging of new meanings from the most an-
cient of wisdoms. Anatheism refers to an inaugural event lying at the heart of every
great religion, a wager between hospitality and hostility to the stranger—the sense
of something “more.” By analyzing the roots of our own anatheistic moment today,
Richard Kearney shows not only how a return to God is possible for those who seek it
but also how a more liberating faith can be born.
RichaRd KeaRney holds the Charles H. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at
Boston College and is visiting professor at University College Dublin.
c
insuRRecTions: cRiTical sTudies in Religion, poliTics, and culTuRe o
l
u
ISBN: 978-0-231-14789-7 coveR image: Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NY mb
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris ia
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Columbia University Press / New York i c h a R d e a R n e y
9 780231 147897 www.cup.columbia.edu
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
A N A T H E I S M
INSURRECTIONS: CRITICAL STUDIES IN RELIGION,
POLITICS, AND CULTURE
Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
Slavoj Žižek, Clayton Crockett, Creston Davis, Jeffrey W. Robbins, editors
The intersection of religion, politics, and culture is one of the most discussed
areas in theory today. It also has the deepest and most wide-ranging impact
on the world. Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
will bring the tools of philosophy and critical theory to the political implica-
tions of the religious turn. The series will address a range of religious traditions
and political viewpoints in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the
world. Without advocating any specific religious or theological stance, the
series aims nonetheless to be faithful to the radical emancipatory potential
of religion.
After the Death of God,
John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, edited by Jeffrey W. Robbins
Nietzsche and Levinas: After the Death of a Certain God,
edited by Bettina Bergo and Jill Stauffer
The Politics of Postsecular Religion: Mourning Secular Futures,
Ananda Abeysekara
Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe,
Mary-Jane Rubenstein
Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality,
and the Politics of Translation,
Arvind Mandair
Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing: Dialectic, Destruction, Deconstruction,
Catherine Malabou
A N A T H E I S M
{ }
Returning to God After God
R K
i c h a R d e a R n e y
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2010 Columbia University Press
Paperback edition, 2011
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kearney, Richard.
Anatheism: returning to God after God / Richard Kearney.
p. cm. —(Insurrections)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-14788-0 (cloth: alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-231-14789-4 (pbk. :
alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-231-51986-1 (e-book)
1. God. 2. Death of God. I. Title II. Series.
BL473.K43 2010
211—dc22
2009017886
Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on
permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for Web sites that
may have expired or changed since the book was prepared.
For my sister, Sally,
who heals and cares
Sometimes the guest must leave the host
in order to remain a guest
—Fanny Howe, The Lyrics
He was my host—he was my guest,
I never to this day
If I invited him could tell,
Or he invited me.
So infinite our intercourse
So intimate, indeed,
Analysis as capsule seemed
To keeper of the seed.
—Emily Dickinson
C O N T E N T S
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xxi
One: Prelude
Introduction: God After God 3
1. In the Moment: The Uninvited Guest 17
2. In the Wager: The Fivefold Motion 40
3. In the Name: After Auschwitz Who Can Say God? 57
Two: Interlude
4. In the Flesh: Sacramental Imagination 85
5. In the Text: Joyce, Proust, Woolf 101
Three: Postlude
6. In the World: Between Secular and Sacred 133
7. In the Act: Between Word and Flesh 152
Conclusion: Welcoming Strange Gods 166
Epilogue 182
Notes 187
Index 235
Description:Has the passing of the old God paved the way for a new kind of religious project, a more responsible way to seek, sound, and love the things we call divine? Has the suspension of dogmatic certainties and presumptions opened a space in which we can encounter religious wonder anew? Situated at the spl
