This book is an interdisciplinary study of the cultural representations of Jesus in the context of contemporary religious theory and continental philosophy. It looks at Jesus in view of an updated Derridean hauntology and spectrality, with an emphasis on the inherent plasticity of the Christian heritage. While the work engages with the recent Jesus-centered writings of Slavoj Zizek, Francois Laruelle, and Giorgio Agamben, it places a greater and much needed emphasis on the philosophical, theological, and cultural links between a plastic, hauntological Christian heritage and Jesus's historically evolving plural subjectivity, with the latter explored in texts of popular culture. It is a multidisciplinary study of Jesus, as well as a dynamic Christian heritage that simultaneously constructs and deconstructs Jesus's philosophical, political, and cultural centrality.

The Encyclopedia of Postmodernism provides comprehensive and authoritative coverage of academic disciplines, critical terms and central figures relating to the vast field of postmodern studies. With three cross-referenced sections, the volume is easily accessible to readers with specialized research agendas and general interests in contemporary cultural, historical, literary and philosophical issues.
Since its inception in the 1960s, postmodernism has emerged as a significant cultural, political and intellectual force that many scholars would argue defines our era. Postmodernism, in its various configurations, has consistently challenged concepts of selfhood, knowledge formation, aesthetics, ethics, history and politics. This Encyclopedia offers a wide-range of perspectives on postmodernism that illustrates the plurality of this critical concept that is so much part of our current intellectual debates. In this regard, the volume does not adhere to a single definition of postmodernism as much as it documents the use of the term across a variety of academic and cultural pursuits.
The Encyclopedia of Postmodernism, it must be noted, resists simply presenting postmodernism as a new style among many styles occuring in the post-disciplinary academy. Documenting the use of the term acknowledges that postmodernism has a much deeper and long-lasting effect on academic and cultural life. In general, the volume rests on the understanding that postmodernism is not so much a style as it is an on-going process, a process of both disintegration and reformation.

In this critical examination of the role of the imagination in the modern and postmodern periods, Victor E. Taylor looks at the 'fable' as a narrative form that addresses the ultimate questions of how to live and why. He assesses various literary theories and styles in the wake of postmodernism to reveal the ways in which fable-style narrative can be a meaningful genre for addressing traditional and post-traditional religious, ethical, and epistemological concerns. In the process, Taylor draws on key figures across the humanities--from Mircea Eliade and Claude Levi-Strauss, Paul Ricoeur and Slavoj Zizek, to Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka.

Placing an emphasis on rethinking the importance of critical theory in religious studies, the author argues that a new, more demanding formulation of the concept of possibility allows for a realignment of the philosophical, mythological, and literary imaginations. By returning to the history of philosophy, myth studies, and modern literature, Taylor makes a renewed case for the significance of a distinctive formulation of religious theory as a desire for thinking. Religion after Postmodernism calls for a reconsideration of "theory as thinking" for the future of philosophy, religious studies, and literature.

In this critical examination of the role of the imagination in the modern and postmodern periods, Victor E. Taylor looks at the 'fable' as a narrative form that addresses the ultimate questions of how to live and why. He assesses various literary theories and styles in the wake of postmodernism to reveal the ways in which fable-style narrative can be a meaningful genre for addressing traditional and post-traditional religious, ethical, and epistemological concerns. In the process, Taylor draws on key figures across the humanities--from Mircea Eliade and Claude Levi-Strauss, Paul Ricoeur and Slavoj Zizek, to Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka.

Placing an emphasis on rethinking the importance of critical theory in religious studies, the author argues that a new, more demanding formulation of the concept of possibility allows for a realignment of the philosophical, mythological, and literary imaginations. By returning to the history of philosophy, myth studies, and modern literature, Taylor makes a renewed case for the significance of a distinctive formulation of religious theory as a desire for thinking. Religion after Postmodernism calls for a reconsideration of "theory as thinking" for the future of philosophy, religious studies, and literature.