A N A T H E I S M

{ 6 ) 8 96 2- 2 + 8 3 +3( % * 8 ) 6 +3( }
R I C H A R D K E A R N E Y
A
N
A
T
H
E
I
S
M
K
E
A
R
N
E
Y
C
O
L
U
M
B
I
A
A heartfelt, pragmatic, and eminently realistic argument about howone might con-
tinue to think aboutand even dedicate ones life toGod after the death or disap-
pearance of God over the last hundred years or so. . . . Richard Kearney wants to see
what is left of God, in the time after God, and he does so superbly well.
JAMES WOOD, The NewYorker
I enjoyed Kearneys book tremendously, especially the ana-theme: the distinction be-
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 newand old positions of belief and non-belief.
CHARLES TAYLOR, author of ASecular 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-
entic utilitarianismthat 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
I nd the notion of ana-theism extremely pertinent as a way of witnessing to the
death of the death of God (a double privative) while opening a third way: a path be-
yond both theism and atheism, beyond metaphysics and religion, which returns to
the possibility of the divine event as such
JEAN- LUC MARI ON, author of God Without Being
An exciting, imaginative, and robust account of the life of faith in the postmodern
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
and dogmatism, to nd the sacred in the secular, to see God in the world. This book is
everything we have come to expect fromKearneyclear, fascinating, and engaging,
all in all a major contribution to the contemporarycontinental philosophyof religion.
JOHN D. CAPUTO, coauthor of After the Death of God.
God after Godana-theosis 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. Anatheismrefers to an inaugural event lying at the heart of every
great religion, a wager between hospitality and hostility to the strangerthe sense
of something more. By analyzing the roots of our own anatheistic moment today,
Richard Kearney shows not only howa return to God is possible for those who seek it
but also howa more liberating faith can be born.
R I C H A R D K E A R N E Y holds the Charles H. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at
Boston College and is visiting professor at University College Dublin.
I N S U R R E C T I O N S : C R I T I C A L S T U D I E S I N R E L I G I O N , P O L I T I C S , A N D C U L T U R E
COVER I MAGE: Runion des Muses Nationaux / Art Resource, NY
2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork/ADAGP, Paris
Columbia University Press / New York
www.cup.columbia.edu
46- 28)( - 28,) 9 7 %
SBN: 978-0-231-14789-7
9 780231 147897