Reimagining the Sacred

Richard Kearney holds the Charles H. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Strangers, Gods, and Monsters, The God Who May Be, and Anatheism: Returning to God After God. Jens Zimmermann holds the Canada Research Chair for Interpretation, Religion, and Culture at Trinity Western University. He has published widely on philosophy, theology, and literary theory. He is the author of Humanism and Religion: A Call for the Renewal of Western Culture and Hermeneutics: A Very Short Introduction.

This eminently readable volume offers rich insights into the leading contemporary Continental philosophers of religion who are addressing the place of the sacred and the sacramental in the contemporary world after the supposed 'death of God' announced by Nietzsche and others. Kearney shows his hermeneutical and dialogical skills in illuminating interviews conducted with leading thinkers, including Jean-Luc Marion, Charles Taylor, Gianni Vattimo and Julia Kristeva. This book explores not just the clash between atheism and theism but the exploration of the traces of the divine, which Kearney has termed anatheism. This book serves both as a lucid introduction to contemporary Continental philosophy of religion and a guide through the complexity of the contested terrain between theists, atheists, and those who search for a credible way to articulate the sacred in everyday life. -- Dermot Moran, University College Dublin This unique collection of interviews stages a critical debate among some of the most respected voices in continental thought around key aspects of Kearney's thesis. This exploration of non-fundamentalist religious belief by a group of prominent philosophers will be considered a significant contribution to the field. -- William Egginton, The Johns Hopkins University A remarkable book of conversations. We learn about the influential ideas of Kearney's interlocutors. Moreover, the impressive voice of Kearney himself offers its own singular contribution and is very worthy of being honored among his peers. -- William Desmond, Villanova University and Katholieke Universteit Leuven With an infectious spirit of intellectual generosity, Kearney and his dialogue partners parse critical points of connection and divergence on the question of God and the meaning of religion in our time. For readers coming to this topic for the first time, this book provides a working bibliography for critical works in this tradition of philosophy and theology. For insiders, it adds new layers to longstanding conversations about 'great, inherited texts.' -- Shelly Rambo, Boston University This rigorous, forward-thinking intellectual treatise opens new space for religious humanism amid cacophonous secular, political, and religious debate. Publishers Weekly A lucid introduction to contemporary Continental philosophy of religion and a guide through the contested terrain between theists, atheists, and those who search for a credible ana-theist option to articulate the sacred in everyday life. -- Dermot Moran, University College Dublin A genuinely fascinating read... Reading Religion A welcome addition... for anyone unfamiliar with the work of Richard Kearney, this could be an excellent first introduction to anatheism and the God-who-may-be. Philosophischer Literaturanzeiger Few will read this book without being challenged to clarify their ideas on God and their attitude to faith. -- Joseph S. O'Leary Los Angeles Review of Books

• Preface, by Richard Kearney Introduction, by Jens Zimmermann 1. God After God: An Anatheist Attempt to Reimagine God, by Richard Kearney 2. Imagination, Anatheism, and the Sacred, by Richard Kearney and James Wood 3. Beyond the Impossible, by Richard Kearney and Catherine Keller 4. Transcendent Humanism in a Secular Age, by Richard Kearney and Charles Taylor 5. New Humanism and the Need to Believe, by Richard Kearney and Julia Kristeva 6. Anatheism, Nihilism, and Weak Thought, by Richard Kearney and Gianni Vattimo 7. What's God? "A Shout in the Street, by Richard Kearney and Simon Critchley 8. The Death of the Death of God, by Richard Kearney and Jean-Luc Marion 9. Anatheism and Radical Hermeneutics, by Richard Kearney and John Caputo 10. Theism, Atheism, Anatheism, by David Tracy, Merold Westphal, and Jens Zimmermann Epilogue: In Guise of a Response, by Richard Kearney Artist's Note, by Sheila Gallagher Index