The preface gives the background of the postmodern religious context within which a
“view of God to consider” has become problematic. The preface also gives the
methodology as well as the rationale for the study. The article examines the anatheistic
concept of God of the well-known philosopher of religion, Richard Kearney, in order to
answer the question whether Kearney’s concept of God is to be regarded in our postmetaphysical
age and why. Two books of Kearney are selected to analyse, namely The
God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion (2001) and Anatheism: Returning to God
after God (2011). The article indicates that the anatheistic God is not easy to identify
and that it mostly involves a risk or wager of hospitality to recognize this God who is
amongst other, “weak, functionalist, the other, the stranger and the incarnated kingdom
of peace and love”. It is argued that although this non-metaphysical anatheistic God has
some positive aspects (creativities, plurality, not militant or dogmatic), it remains difficult
to mull over (and accept) this view of God for various reasons (weakness, functionality,
unrecognizability). Kearney helps one however through his anatheistic concept of God
to think new about the possibilities to “return to God after God” in our post-metaphysical
age. / MPhil , North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/16013 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Pienaar, Marquard Dirk |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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