"Kearney is one of the most exciting thinkers in the English-speaking world of continental philosophy.... and [he] joins hands with its fundamental project, asking the question 'what'or who'comes after the God of metaphysics?'" -- John D. Caputo
Engaging some of the most urgent issues in the philosophy of religion today, in this lively book Richard Kearney proposes that instead of thinking of God as 'actual,' God might best be thought of as the possibility of the impossible. By pulling away from biblical perceptions of God and breaking with dominant theological traditions, Kearney draws on the work of Ricoeur, Levinas, Derrida, Heidegger, and others to provide a surprising and original answer to who or what God might be. For Kearney, the intersecting dimensions of impossibility propel religious experience and faith in new directions, notably toward views of God that are unforeseeable, unprogrammable, and uncertain. Important themes such as the phenomenology of the persona, the meaning of the unity of God, God and desire, notions of existence and différance, and faith in philosophy are taken up in this penetrating and original work.
Richard Kearney is Professor of Philosophy at Boston College and University College, Dublin. He is author of many books on modern philosophy and culture, including Dialogues with Contemporary Continental Thinkers, The Wake of Imagination, and The Poetics of Modernity.
The God Who May Be
Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion Merold Westphal, general editor
The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion Richard Kearney
Indiana University Press Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail
[email protected] ∫ 2001 by Richard Kearney All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kearney, Richard. The God who may be : a hermeneutics of religion / Richard Kearney. p. cm. — (Indiana series in the philosophy of religion) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-253-33998-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21489-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. God. 2. Philosophical theology. 3. Possibility—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title. II. Series. BT103 .K43 2001 211—dc21 2001002818 1
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For my late father, Kevin, and my mother, Ann
Contents
acknowledgments / ix
Introduction / 1 1. Toward a Phenomenology of the Persona / 9 2. I Am Who May Be / 20 3. Transfiguring God / 39 4. Desiring God / 53 5. Possibilizing God / 80 Conclusion: Poetics of the Possible God / 101 notes / 113 bibliography / 161 index / 171
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acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the indispensable support and encouragement of John Manoussakis, my assistant at Boston College; Merold Westphal, my general editor; and Dee Mortensen, my sponsoring editor at Indiana. Th