The Insistence of God: A Theology of Perhaps

1. God, Perhaps: The Fear of One Small Word

god, perhaps 3 “Peut-être—il faut toujours dire peut-être pour . . .”1 See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves. —Matthew 10:16 I dream of learning how to say “perhaps.” I have the same dream, night after night, of a tolle, lege experience, in which I open a book—I cannot make out the title—always to the same sentence, “Peut-être—il faut toujours dire peut-être pour . . .” In the morning I cannot remember the rest of the sentence. I am dreaming of a new species of theologians, of theologians to come, theologians of the “perhaps,” a new society of friends of a dangerous “perhaps .” I would like to think we are, perhaps, already a little like these theologians we see coming and that they will be a little like us.2 But, of course, since we cannot see them coming and do not know what they will be like, we can only call, “come.” “Perhaps” There is every reason for philosophers and theologians to fear this one small word, “perhaps.”3 It seems the very antithesis of what we want from them. We expect philosophers and theologians to help us decide, but “perhaps ” is the language of indecision and of the suspension of judgment. We expect knowledge and precision from philosophy but “perhaps” is vague and evasive, an admission that we just don’t know. We expect faith from the theologians but “perhaps” means we are uncertain, skeptical, too timid to say anything definite. “Perhaps” is the abdication of faith, decision, ethics , judgment and knowledge, of philosophy and theology, a retreat to the o n e god, perhaps The Fear of One Small Word 4 the insistence of god safety of the indecisive and uncommitted. “Perhaps” is the motto of the aesthete in Either/Or: if you do it, you will regret it; if you don’t do it, you will regret it. So, play it safe and stay out of it.4 Unless, perhaps, there is “another experience of the perhaps.”5 Unless “perhaps” has another role and belongs to another order, otherwise than the business as usual of philosophy and theology, otherwise than logic, ontologic , and onto-theo-logic.6 That is the premise of the present study. I pursue the possibility that “perhaps” belongs to another “regime” than that of mere opinion and hazy indecision,7 that it enjoys an “irreducible modality” all its own.Iaminsearchofa“perhaps”thatisnotacategoryoflogicbutprovesto be of a more subtle disposition, one uniquely accommodated to address the “event,” one that is indeed “the only possible thought of the event.”8 “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). In an undertaking as uncertain as this, I call upon the animals of Jesus to be my companions. Animal that I am, I am following (je suis) an alternate zoology, a zoo-theological order of beasts who distrust sovereigns that is proposed by Jesus and Derrida,9 and my candidate for such a strange beast is “perhaps.” Accordingly, my advocacy of the weak force of “perhaps” must be as innocent as a dove and as shrewd and sly as a snake, able to brave the wolves of philosophy and theology and their love of monarchy and sovereignty and principial order. I am issuing a call for a new species of theologians, weak theologians who must be, just as Jesus says, as wise, shrewd, and prudent as serpents, the wise ones (phronimoi) of the “perhaps ”—even as they must be as harmless (akeraioi) as the doves. This is a combination so odd as even to merit a pink “perhaps” from the Jesus Seminar , which is exceedingly high praise for the Seminar. Even the Jesus Seminar is forced to admit that this is such a strange saying that Jesus might have actually said it—perhaps, in the pink, almost ruby rubric red. The “perhaps” of which I speak here does not belong to the “strong” or sovereign order of presence, power, principle, essence, actuality, knowledge , or belief. The “perhaps,” “powerless in its very power,” does not belong to the “dominant thinking about the possible in philosophy.”10 “Perhaps ” does not mean the onto-possible, the future present, where it is only a matter of time until it rolls around at some later date. It does not belong to the system of...