The questioning of religion is the beginning of a flood, one that cannot be contained and will soon drown every theological, political, economic, and cultural orthodoxy that pledged its allegiance to a sinking cause.
We are in just such an era of revolt, and those with eyes to see are learning to interrogate motives.
When we are told of an idea that cannot possibly be true, the most immediate question is this: does the speaker so very foolishly believe their own words, or is the person a cynic who knows perfectly well how they manipulate the truth? As individual personalities transform into a collective drive, the aftermath is a brutal mix of motives, fictions, and anxieties.
The Cynic & the Fool explores theology and politics through the lens of our unconscious motives, our clever repression, and our deceptive denial.
In nine chapters interspersed with nine parables, De Lay unites psychoanalysis, philosophy, and theology together for an accessible yet critical theory of culture.
There could not be a more crucial moment to settle these questions.
Why do we feel such anxiety over the most abstract orthodoxies, what conflicts of interest are we facing, and why we are commanded to see the world a certain way? At a time when vicious partisan politics has replaced the wars of religion with their odium theologicum of bygone ages, Tad De Lay's Cynic and the Fool is a must-read for thoughtful people, regardless of their ideological persuasion.
Through storytelling, personal anecdote, and frequent flashes of magisterial pedagogy, De Lay entices us into confronting the knotted tangles of our own 'political unconscious' and offers us hope that we will eventually know the truth and that it might free us, even if we are in a so-called 'post-truth' era.
--Carl Raschke, University of Denver; author of Critical Theology Tad Delay continues his remarkable and insightful exploration of Lacan's work and its intersections with theology in this new book.
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