The Gift of Unbelief

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes notes 1 For a discussion of this, see the interview with Gianni Vattimo entitled “A Prayer for Silence” in John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, After the Death of God, ed. Jeffrey W. Robbins (New York: Columbia UP, 2007) 89–113. 2 Gianni Vattimo, After Christianity, trans. Luca D’Isanto (New York: Columbia UP, 2002) 17. 3 For Vattimo's extended reflection on the significance of this insight from Nietzsche for hermeneutics, see “The Age of Interpretation” in Gianni Vattimo and Richard Rorty, The Future of Religion, ed. Santiago Zabala (New York: Columbia UP, 2005) 43–54. 4 See Gianni Vattimo, Nihilism and Emancipation: Ethics, Politics, and Law (New York: Columbia UP, 2004). 5 Peter Berger, The Heretical Imperative (New York: Doubleday, 1979) 60. 6 William James, “The Will to Believe,” . 7 William James, Pragmatism (New York: Dover, 1995) 77–78; emphasis in original. 8 James, “The Will to Believe.” 9 Dante, The Inferno of Dante, trans. Robert Pinsky (New York: Farrar, 1994) 19–25. With this comes an irony, as pointed out by Slavoj Žižek when lampooning the multiplication of qualifiers and conditions within postmodern deconstructive discussions of truth. After all, Žižek points out, only those who truly believe in the power of truth and the meaning of language would try so desperately hard to mute its force and annul its meaning. 10 Migel de Unamuno y Jugo, “Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr” 259–60. 11 Ibid. 261. 12 Ibid. 264. 13 Ibid. 261. 14 Ibid. 272. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 275. 17 Ibid. 276. 18 Ibid. 286. 19 Soren Kierkegaard, Attack upon “Christendom” (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1968) 59. 20 Migel de Unamuno y Jugo, “Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr” 291

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