Caputo’s Postmodern Understanding of Religion

Year 2024, , 149 - 180, 08.07.2024

Bilal Bekalp

https://doi.org/10.12730/is.1435255

Abstract

The most important characteristic of the age in which we live is the prominence of pluralistic and local understandings. In modern thought, the importance of reaching universal, objective, and precise knowledge is known. In postmodern thought, on the other hand, almost the opposite situation is put forward, and religion finds its place among pluralistic and local understandings. Religion no longer has valid, inclusive, and generalizable claims for everyone. In the postmodern age, religion is referred to as something between things. John Caputo, who has a very important place in contemporary thought, develops his thoughts from a postmodern framework. However, Caputo develops a hermeneutic approach to avoid falling into relativism. In doing so, he is under the influence of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Derrida. In particular, he develops an “event” theology based on Derrida’s concept of “religion without religion”. Combining this idea with hermeneutics, Caputo believes that life is always interpreted differently but that life still has a religious aspect. From this point of view, he puts forward an understanding of “weak theology”. Caputo’s “weak” theology rethinks various theological tropes and themes through a lens that significantly reshapes our understanding of the role and purpose of theology. In this paper, we address the concepts of weak theology and religion without religion and critically examine how religion and theology are situated within postmodern thought.

Keywords

Weak theology, hermeneutics, postmetaphysical thought, postmodernism

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