RELIGION, METAPHYSICS, AND THE POSTMODERN

William Desmonds original and creative work in metaphysics is attracting more and more attention from philosophers of religion. Putting Desmond in conversation with John D. Caputo, an important philosopher of religion from the Continental tradition, Christopher Ben Simpson casts new light on Desmonds complex, multifaceted, and nuanced thought. The comparative approach allows Simpson to get at the core of recent debates in the philosophy of religion. He develops a rich understanding of how ethics and religion are informed by metaphysics, and contrasts this approach to the decidedly anti-metaphysical stance in Continental philosophy. Religion, Metaphysics, and the Postmodern presents a systematic analysis of Desmonds thought as it advances work on Caputos thinking and on the philosophy of religion. In this book Simpson presents with bewitching simplicity and elegance two of theologys valuable philosophical interlocutors as it goes forward, the metaphysics of between of William Desmond and the post-metaphysical thought of Jack Caputo. If Simpson resolutely chooses Desmond, he never fails to specify the virtues of Caputo. --Cyril ORegan, Huisking Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame Simpson has provided an indispensable resource not only for the thought of Caputo and Desmond, but for the postmodern debate about the status of metaphysics in general and its significance for religious thought. With a remarkable degree of clarity, as well as a treatment of Caputo that is as generous as it is critical, Simpsons analysis demonstrates not only that declarations of the death of metaphysics are profoundly naive, but that in the thought of William Desmond, metaphysics remains the most appropriate discourse for the many challenges facing contemporary religious thought. --Brendan Sammon, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, St. Josephs University The more-than-fair run that Simpson gives Caputo for his money only serves the more to show that it is Desmond who