Of poetics and possibility : Richard Kearney’s “Re-imagining God”

Abstract

The study explores Richard Kearney‟s 2007 essay, “Re-imagining God,” as an example of his characteristic hermeneutic exploration of the possible as a means of steering a middle way through philosophical extremes. Specifically, the essay is approached as a portal into Kearney‟s post-metaphysical proposal of re-imagining God eschatologically, that is to say as neither Being nor non-Being, but as the possibility-to-be. The hypothesis is that Kearney‟s notion of possibility engenders new prospects for discourse about God that moves us beyond metaphysical categories to allow for an eschatological understanding of God in terms of post-metaphysical thought. After an overview of Kearney‟s recent work and a discussion of “Re-imagining God,” the body of the dissertation identifies seven main aspects of Kearney‟s proposal (post-metaphysical discourse about God; the idea of enabling God; Kearney‟s eschatology and ethics; poetics; his hermeneutics; and imagination), and reflects on these largely by means of a literary study of Kearney‟s own writings on the topics in his other publications. Finally, the study considers the possibilities disclosed by Kearney‟s approach as an invitation to Systematic Theology to engage with philosophy in exploring post-metaphysical ways of speaking about God. Apart from providing an explication on the most significant of Kearney‟s philosophical motifs in light of his invitation to re-imagine God as posse, the study outlines certain possibilities for the theological application of Kearney‟s proposal. Kearney‟s ultimate contention – that an eschatological revision of God may enable us to “retrieve certain neglected texts of our intellectual heritage and offer an account more consonant with the Messianic promise of theism,” receives attention in the light of his invitation to theologians to enter into dialogue with philosophy and make their contribution to the “religious turn” in Continental Philosophy (Kearney 2001:80).