For much of Christianity’s history, G-d has been characterized as being totally other, completely distant, a non-being, utterly transcendent, and beyond human understanding. This view of G-d has been supported and developed by countless theologians throughout history, from Augustine of Hippo to Thomas Aquinas to Joseph Ratzinger. Related to this understanding of G-d is the belief that G-d is the ultimate source of all life, existence, and being; according to the Thomist perspective, G-d, as a non-being, is not bound to beingness and therefore is able to be the ultimate source of all being.

However, philosophers and theologians within radical theology, such as John D. Caputo, believe that there should be no absolutes—especially absolute certainty—with regard to G-d, including traditional claims that G-d is the absolute center. To make positive claims regarding G-d is, in my view, a vain enterprise—for who are we but creatures with limited knowledge and can, in no way, fully comprehend and ascertain that which is of the utmost transcendence, power, and glory.

This is why figures such as Caputo favor mysticism, for he admires its embrace of mystery—that which is unknown. Mysticism within itself contains, to some degree, an agnosticism—the humility to say “I do not know,” and the wisdom not to make weighty truth claims. This is a major point because Caputo is calling us to embrace the death of G-d because it allows us to approach G-d in a new light that is not bound by strictly defined points or statements riddled with absolutes. We are now allowed to sit and ponder in, with, and through G-d.