The Paradox of Hope: Theology and the Problem of Nihilism

Description: In contemporary public discourse the supposedly comprehensive explanatory power of reason is used to justify a thoroughgoing suspicion of religion. In recent decades the critiques of postmodernism have generated a different kind of suspicion by construing history as a process that is too arbitrary to be narrated--either by modern reason or by religion. In light of these developments a question arises regarding the appropriate theological response to such forms of suspicion both of which threaten not just religion but our sense of human agency as such. Does the retrieval of a meaningful religious subjectivity in a climate of suspicion demand a renewed emphasis upon theologys rhetorical persuasiveness as Radical Orthodoxy has recently proposed? Or does identifying the believing subject with theologys grammar fail to attend to some of the challenges posed by such suspicion? The Paradox of Hope answers these questions in an original and provocative way by clarifying the complex relationship between post-secular theology and the work of Søren Kierkegaard. Ultimately Klassen argues that Kierkegaards influence is crucial albeit obscured in current post-secular theological imperatives and that the Danes eschewal of persuasion in favor of hopes inexplicable resolve provides a more adequate response to the nihilism of contemporary suspicion than do the rhetorical proposals currently on offer. In light of this argument The Paradox of Hope also rehabilitates some of the voices typically excluded by contemporary theologys rhetoric including those of Heidegger Derrida and Levinas. Endorsements: In what can only be described as a work of love Justin Klassen calls upon Radical Orthodoxy to listen again more carefully to those it has too readily dismissed--Heidegger Levinas Girard and above all Kierkegaard--and thereby to recover its own original existential impulse to abandon rhetorical persuasion and embrace the resolve of hope. Will Milbank Pickstock Hart et al. listen as carefully to Klassen as he has listened to them? A generous illuminating and truly beautiful piece of theological writing. -Douglas Harink The Kings University College Edmonton About the Contributor(s): Justin D. Klassen is Assistant Professor of Theology at Bellarmine University in Louisville Kentucky.