Richard Kearney’s Anatheistic Wager

edited by Chris Doude van Troostwijk, Matthew Clemente, with contributions by Patrick Burke, Richard Colledge, Pierre Drouot, Pierre Drouot, with contributions by Emmanuel Falque, Theo Hettema, Sarah Horton, Richard Kearney, L. Callid Keefe-Perry, Julia Kristeva, Marianne Moyaert, Joseph O'Leary, Helgard Meyer Pretorius, Shelly Rambo, Jacob Rogozinski, Brian Treanor

Philosopher Blaise Pascal famously insisted that it was better to wager belief in God than to risk eternal damnation. More recently, Richard Kearney has offered a wager of his own--the anatheistic wager, or return to God after the death of God. In this volume, an international group of contributors consider what Kearney's spiritual wager means. They question what is at stake with such a wager and what anatheism demands of the self and of others. The essays explore the dynamics of religious anatheistic performativity, its demarcations and limits, and its motives. A recent interview with Kearney focuses on crucial questions about philosophy, theology, and religious commitment. As a whole, this volume interprets and challenges Kearney's philosophy of religion and its radical impact on contemporary views of God.

AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction: The Risk of the Wager (Chris Doude van Troostwijk and Matthew Clemente)Part I: Conversations after God1. Theism, Atheism, Anatheism (James Wood and Richard Kearney)2. A Conversation after God (Chris Doude van Troostwijk and Richard Kearney)3. Mysticism and Anatheism: The Case of Teresa (Julia Kristeva and Richard Kearney)4. Anatheist Exchange: Returning to the Body after the Flesh (Emmanuel Falque and Richard Kearney)Part II: At the Limits of Theology5. The Anatheistic Wager: faith after Faith (Brian Treanor)6. Arch¿ and Eschaton: Kearney and Desmond on God (Richard Colledge)7. Is it Possible to be a Reformed Anatheist? (Helgard Pretorius)8. Anatheism and Inter-religious Hospitality: Reflections from a Catholic Comparative Theologian (Marianne Moyaert)9. Buddhist Anatheism (Joseph O'Leary)10. The Wager that Wasn't: An Education in Shady Chances (L. Callid Keefe-Perry)Part III: Poetics of the Sacred11. Recognition and Hospitality: Coming Back to the Odysseus's Coming Home (Pierre Drouot, trans. Sarah Horton)12. The Twofold Face of God: an Anatheist Reading of the Sacrifice of Abraham (Jacob Rogozinski)13. The Apparent God: Biblical Poetics and the End of Time (Theo Hettema)14. Kearney's Other and the Anatheist Shadow (Patrick Burke)15. Trauma, Resurrection, and the Anatheistic Wager (Shelley Rambo)Epilogue: From Wager to Art and Back Again (Chris Doude van Troostwijk and Matthew Clemente)BibliographyIndex