Flight of the Gods Philosophical Perspectives on Negative Theology

Contemporary continental philosophy approaches metaphysics with great reservation. A point of criticism concerns traditional philosophical speaking about God. Whereas Nietzsche, with his question ôGod is dead; who killed Him?ö was, in his time, highly æunzeitgem??Æ and shocking, the twentieth century by contrast, saw HeideggerÆs concept of æonto-theologyÆ and its implied problematization of the God of the metaphysicians quickly become a famous term. In HeideggerÆs words, to a philosophical concept or æbeingÆ we can neither pray, nor kneel. Heidegger did not, however, return to the God of Christian faith. He tried to initiate a new way of speaking about Godùa way that reveals the limits of philosophical discourse. Derrida, Marion, Bataille, Adorno, Taubes and Bakhtin, each in their own way, continue this exploration begun by Nietzsche and Heidegger. This book takes a fresh look at these developments. The ædeath of GodÆ as the editors say in an introductory study, announces not so much the death of the æold GodÆùthe God of philosophers, theologians and believersùbut rather the death of the god who put himself on His throne: autonomous human reason. In listening to the reactions to this dethronement of autonomous reason, the editors believe they hear the echoes of an experience of an embarrassment rooted partly in an old medieval tradition: negative theology. With the death of this ænew godÆ, might a sensitivity reappear for transcendence? Here the editors want to offer a platform where contemporary philosophers of culture can again pose the question of speaking about God.

Ilse Bulhof and Laurens ten Kate are Professors of Philosophy at Catholic Theological University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Laurens ten Kate is Associate Professor in the Philosophy of Religion, Religious Studies and Theology at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He is the co-editor of Flight of the Gods: Philosophical Perspectives Negative Theology (Fordham).