This Silence Must Now Speak

Thomas J. J. Altizer is the leading radical theologian of our time. His creative lifework-a steady output of some seventeen books and tens of articles-spans from the late 1950s to the present. In the past few decades, Altizer has written letters on religious, theological, political, and philosophical matters to an international virtual community of scholars and friends who work in a number of disciplines, ranging from British literary theorist David Jasper, to well-known contemporary philosophers such as Richard Kearney, John D. Caputo, and Edward S. Casey. Like the seventeenth century philosopher Marin Mersenne, who was renowned in the age of Descartes for gathering around him a network of brilliant philosophers and scientists through exchanges of written correspondence, so Altizer in his own domain of philosophical theology has acted as a hub for networking talented thinkers and scholars. In these brilliant letters, which take the form of meditative mini-essays, Altizer writes in an accessible, personal, and occasionally confessional manner. They are an intellectual tour de force and provide another entry into engagement with Altizer's thought.