Sublime

“deferral,”

Lyotard

God repeatedly refuses to allow his gracious activity to run along the expected lines of worldly influence and privilege. He puts in the center the person whom the world would put on the periphery.

Believe in what you like, just so long as you don’t get violent or bore us with it. That is also what people say about art, which is meant for weekend trips to museums and reading on the beach – that is, it is divorced from truth.

Indeed, for Vattimo, the lightening of existence or, as he often refers to it, its weakening allows for a post-metaphysical return of religion. Nevertheless, any such “return” must, if it is to be legitimate, pass through God’s death, meaning that it must be “weak” (i.e. lacking ultimate foundations) rather than “strong.” Religion—and any other for

When we speak of something (say the United States) being “worthy of the name” (say, democracy), we are speaking of the event that name contains.