Christianity after Christendom - by Martin Koci (Hardcover)

About the Book

Bringing seven continental philosophers into conversation, Koci examines what Christianity means post-Christendom and offers new perspectives on the Christian faith as an existential mode of being-in-the-world.

Book Synopsis

What comes after the end of Christendom? Christianity has ceased to function as the dominant force in society and yet the Christian faith continues. How are we to understand Christianity in this 'after'?

Bringing into conversation seven unorthodox or 'heretical' continental philosophers, including Jan Patocka, Jean-Luc Nancy, Gianni Vattimo and John D. Caputo, Martin Koci re-centres the debates around philosophy's so-called return to religion to address the current 'not-Christian, but not yet non-Christian' culture.

In the modern context of increasing secularization and pluralization, Christianity after Christendom boldly proposes that Christians must embrace the demise of Christianity as a meta-narrative and see their faith as an existential mode of being-in-the-world. Whilst not denying the religion's history, this 'after' of Christianity emancipates the discourse from the socio-historical focus on Christendom and introduces new perspectives on Christianity as an embodied religious tradition, as a way of being, even as a faithfulness to the world.

In dialogue with a broad range of philosophical movements, including deconstruction, phenomenology, hermeneutics and postmodern critiques of religion, this is a timely examination of the present and future of post-Christendom Christianity.

Review Quotes

Taking cues from recent figures working on the borders of theology and phenomenology, Koci pushes us toward the core of embodied religious existence without yet performing a phenomenological analysis, offering us a rich dialectical approach that seeks to appreciate both hermeneutical and phenomenological methods. Christianity is seen therefore as what it is, a way of life and not just a hermeneutical, or thought-based exercise.
Colby Dickinson, Professor of Theology, Loyola University Chicago, USA

About the Author

Martin Koci is Associate Professor at the Catholic University of Linz, Austria. He is the author of Thinking Faith after Christianity (2020) for which he received the Book Prize for the Theological Book of the Years 2019-2020 from the European Society for Catholic Theology.