John D. Caputo Quotes

• Orthodoxy is idolatry if it means holding the 'correct opinions about God' - 'fundamentalism' is the most extreme and salient example of such idolatry - but not if it means holding faith in the right way, that is, not holding it at all but being held by God, in love and service. Theology is idolatry if it means what we say about God instead of letting ourselves be addressed by what God has to say to us. Faith is idolatrous if it is rigidly self-certain but not if it is softened in the waters of 'doubt.

  John D. Caputo

  Mean, Self, Water

  John D. Caputo (2007). “What Would Jesus Deconstruct? (The Church and Postmodern Culture): The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church”, p.131, Baker Academic

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• Seek first the Kingdom of God: that is, the first order of business is to transform one's own inner life, not the accumulation of external trappings of speculative knowledge.

  John D. Caputo

  Order, Kingdoms, Firsts

  John D. Caputo (2014). “How To Read Kierkegaard”, p.14, Granta Books

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• It is a confession that we do not have such a prodigious head as is required to answer the question what is happening, that we cannot get on top of what is happening, that we are stuck in the middle of it, in medias res, inter-esse, amazing and bewildered. We cannot soar over what is happening with philosophy's eagle-wings. What's happening has clipped our wings.

  John D. Caputo

  Philosophy, Eagles, Wings

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• Deconstruction is not meant to be a soft sighing for the future, but a way of deciding now and being impassioned in a moment.

  John D. Caputo

  Way, Moments, Deconstruction

  John D. Caputo (1997). “The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion Without Religion”, p.125, Indiana University Press

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• The book is what we have come to expect from Marion: challenging, subtle and nuanced analyses, dassling formulations, . . a provocative and original philosophical genius.

  John D. Caputo

  Book, Philosophical, Challenges

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