Department of Religion’s Watson Professor John Caputo will deliver his inaugural lecture on Sept. 8

Department of Religion’s Watson Professor John Caputo will deliver his inaugural lecture on Sept. 8August 26, 2004Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Renowned philosopher John D. Caputo, who has joined Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences as the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Humanities, will deliver his inaugural lecture on Sept. 8 in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of the Hall of Languages. He will speak on “The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event” beginning at 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow.

A professor emeritus at Villanova University, Caputo has joined the faculty of the Department of Religion, and will teach graduate courses in both the religion and philosophy departments.

Caputo draws on the work of continental European philosophers and has a special interest in the philosophy of religion. His most recent work has been with deconstruction, a philosophical movement that questions traditional assumptions about certainty, identity and truth.

His controversial 1997 book, “The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida” (Indiana University Press), “lit a fuse” among philosophers and religious scholars, as it promoted a religious approach to deconstruction and a deconstructive approach to religion, Caputo says. He is also the author of “On Religion” (Routledge, 2001) and “More Radical Hermeneutics” (Indiana, 2000). He edited “Blackwell Readings in Continental Philosophy: The Religious” (2001) and co-edited “Questioning God” (Indiana, 2001) and “God, the Gift and Postmodernism” (Indiana, 1999). He also authored the award winning

“Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida” (Fordham University Press, 1997). In all, Caputo has authored or edited 14 books and published more than 100 articles and book chapters. His work has been translated into several languages. In the past three years, two books have appeared about his thought.

For more information on the Sept. 8 lecture, contact the Department of Religion at 443-3861.