The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event Book

My initial attraction to this book was largely based on the title. As anyone familiar with liberation theology can attest, the dominant understanding of God and his relationship to humanity is based upon a narrative articulated and perpetrated by the powerful. As such, religion -- especially in its institutionalized form -- always reinforced hierarchical social arrangements. God's power is a reflection and a projection of the power of the elite. In undermining this dominant theological narrative, liberation theology has to look at God from the point of view of the oppressed. Hence, it has to begin not with the omnipotence of God, but with his weakness.

John D. Caputo is a professional philosopher and a leading figure in offering theological interpretations of the thought of Jacques Derrida. In this work, as in others, he engages in a "deconstruction" of traditional Christian theological narratives. Caputo focuses on a few key principles. First, God's "reign" is a Kingdom. God's power is typified in the act of creation ex nihilo. God's power is such that he can change the past, and lastly, that God's forgiveness takes place within an economy of restitution. In "undoing" these principles (arche), Caputo maintains a few themes of his own. Namely, the name of God signifies not a being but an event; the Kingdom of God is a kind of "divine anarchy;" and that the insufficiency of logic-based discourses should be replaced by a "poetics of the impossible."

The book itself is not without its own weakness. At times it feels really repetitive. The author probably could have whittled it down a hundred pages or so. Also, it assumes some knowledge of the major disputes of 20th Century Continental philosophy. The core arguments can probably be grasped by the layperson if she is patient and doesn't mind glossing over various lemmas and forays into the more esoteric aspects of philosophy. But a comprehensive reading requires at least a familiarity with the likes of Derrida, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Marion, Benjamin, Zizek and Deleuze.

My main problem with the book however, has to do with the implications of Caputo's idea "divine anarchy." A theory of Divine anarchy should function like any other anarchist theory, which is to say, it should outline a specific framework for action. As is typical of of a philosopher, Caputo is more interested in theory than action. While the book offers excellent theoretical material for deconstructing dominant theological narratives, it doesn't offer a formula for liberation. Given this limitation, within its scope it is still a worthwhile book. The section of forgiveness is especially beautiful.