03672nam a2200529Ki 4500 ocn889814831 OCoLC 20200709060207.0 m d cr cnu---unuuu 140902s2011 oru ob 001 0 eng d N$T eng rda pn N$T 9781621893578 (electronic bk.) 162189357X (electronic bk.) 1608997707 9781608997701 (OCoLC)889814831 833506 (N$T) BT40 .K54 2011eb REL 067110 bisacsh REL 070000 bisacsh 230.01 23 N$TA Klassen, Justin D. The paradox of hope : theology and the problem of nihilism / by Justin D. Klassen. Eugene, Or. : Cascade Books, ©2011. 1 online resource (viii, 254 pages) text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-252) and index. Contemporary theology and the turn to rhetoric -- Language and the fear of death -- Consummation or complication? -- Cultural logic and Christian sociality -- Love's obstinate hope. 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 theology's rhetorical persuasiveness, as Radical Orthodoxy has recently proposed? Or does identifying the believing subject with theology's "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 Kierkegaard's influence is crucial, albeit obscured, in current post-secular theological imperatives, and that the Dane's eschewal of persuasion in favor of hope's 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 theology's rhetoric, including those of Heidegger, Derrida, and Levinas. Description based on print version record. Philosophical theology. Postmodern theology. Philosophical theology. fast (OCoLC)fst01060773 Postmodern theology. fast (OCoLC)fst01073163 RELIGION / Christian Theology / Systematic bisacsh RELIGION / Christianity / General bisacsh Electronic books. Print version: Klassen, Justin D. Paradox of hope 1608997707 (DLC) 2011275576 (OCoLC)768985301 EBSCOhost http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=833506 EBSCOhost EBSC 833506 cpp1723AUTO 02 N$T 55250 55250