Patrick Masterson

Hoping Against Hope

Philosophy

“John Caputo has a near magical facility with words, finding just the right one to craft and deliver yet another alarming nihilistic punch to my theistic solar plexus. I find myself clutching my increasingly tattered cloak of 'orthodox' belief ever closer around me! He displays a wonderful tapestry of self-contained if ambiguous unconditionality and draws strength and reinvigoration instead of anguish and despair from a complacent acknowledgement that it is all likely to peter out in a cosmic catastrophe. "I find his remarks about God's insistence very helpful in articulating the pre-philosophical sense of wonder, mystery, mystical, and numinous experiences from which I derive my theistic affirmation.... On nearly every page I wanted to write yes or no, impress an exclamation or question mark. The book certainly arouses one from one's dogmatic slumbers and makes one think—albeit rather uneasily. It is a remarkable testament and achievement. I think it is the best thing of his I have read—Augustine, Pascal, Newman, move over.”