Caputo: On Religion?

In preparation for the upcoming Emergent Theological Conversation, I have been reading John Caputo's On Religion.

The book is an amazingly engaging and humorous, especially given that its subject matter is philosophical theology! He levels a critique against wordy "orthodoxy" that does not live up to the ideal of religion as doing: loving, justice.

Here is my overall assessment of the book: it would be a fantastic book if it had been written from within (the narrative of) one religious tradition, battling against the scholastic tendencies of said religion to put true religion into the realm of words rather than seeing religion as "truly" doing justice and loving mercy. But because the narrative it participates in is, instead, the all-inclusive meta-narrative (!) of post-modern pluralism, it can only be found true if every devoted follower of any particular religion is found a liar. It runs aground on the old problem that "all are true" can only be true if, in fact, none are true.

The book underscored for me the importance of the grounding narrative in which religions make sense and define their terms (e.g., God, love, justice), even as Caputo was trying to use such narratives as part of his appeal for the lack of ultimate truth claim to be found in any one.

One example: Caputo is enamored of 1 John 4:7-8: "Let us love one another." "Love is of God." "Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." "God is love." All well and good, but the term "love" in 1 John 4 is not an indefinite concept to be filled at will by any and all (and no!) religions. The term is given a definitive parameter: "God sent his one and only son into the world;" "In this is love not that we love God but that God loved us and sent his son."

The "love" talk is not an assessment of feeling; nor is it a blank slate for good human deeds; its content is the Christian narrative of a Father who sent a Son to die in order that humanity might live. "Love" here is not a legitimation of any and every act of kindness, it is an appeal to see love as given its definitive content and context on the cross. But this is precisely the sort of claim that Caputo claims is all out of sorts.

Similarly, he alludes often to John 4: worship is not in x or y temple, but in spirit and truth. But this is not an open-ended, all-religions-lead-to-God appeal or claim. In John, Jesus is the truth; and the Spirit is the spirit.

The critique of "religion" Caputo levels undoes his establishment of "religion without religion" that attempts to affirm the best of what's done in the name of God. All must be wrong in order for Caputo to be right.

My initial assessment, however, yet stands: if a Christian can read this and find the thread of truth: that God looks to the actions of people as their "true confession," then the critique of otherwise defined religion packs a powerful punch.