Equally as fascinating as yesterday’s interview with John (”Jack”) Caputo is an interview with Irish philosopher/ poet / novelist Richard Kearney around the theme of anatheism or discovering God after God.
“…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 split between theism and atheism, we now have the opportunity to respond in deeper, freer ways to things we cannot fathom or prove.”
“…Distinguished philosopher Richard Kearney calls this condition ana-theos, or God after God-a moment of creative "not knowing" that signifies a break with former sureties and invites us to forge new meanings from the most ancient of wisdoms. Anatheism refers to an inaugural event that lies at the heart of every great religion, a wager between hospitality and hostility to the stranger, the other—the sense of something "more." By analyzing the roots of our own anatheistic moment, 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.
Kearney begins by locating a turn toward sacred secularity in contemporary philosophy, focusing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Paul Ricoeur (Kearney’s teacher). Kearney discusses the role of theism and atheism in conflict and peace, confronting the distinction between sacramental and sacrificial belief or the God who gives life and the God who takes it away. Accepting that we can never be sure about God, he argues, is the only way to rediscover a hidden holiness in life and to reclaim an everyday divinity…”
You’ll find the May 2012 podcast here. Kearney’s book referred to in the interview / conversation is Anatheism: Returning to God after God.
For bit more biography on Kearney, you may find this 2008 written interview useful.
If one is not "sure about God" how can one discover and thus live an everyday divinity?
The Living Divine Reality is either completely obvious to the living-breathing-feeling body-mind-complex, or completely absent.
Such a statement is effectively an affirmation of a fundamental doubt of the Living Divine Reality, or that one is effectively God-less.
Posted by: John | Wednesday, 13 June 2012 at 07:05 PM
John
I think you can be attracted to mystery or the possibility of the Divine in an attitude of wonder and openess ....it is not a simple either/or in my experience
Paul - I really enjoyed podcast amd am reading Kearneys book... you and I seem to think along the same lines
Posted by: rodney neill | Saturday, 16 June 2012 at 08:38 PM