The pleasure of theology (Exploring the future of theological/religious "figurations" according to Richard Rorty)

The idea of a future, unspecified or at least not easily identifiable, of t he religious brings the theologian back to a perilous task: to define its p ractice taking into consideration a configuration whose outline escapes the theologian and which, in turn, does not cease to impose its demands upon t he theologian. The author does not intend to put forth the question of the future of theology, nor "a fortiori" the question of the link between such a future and current displacements of the religious. He is rather intereste d in what can be said in the future about theology, i.e., in the speech whi ch the theologians could be tempted to entertain. This exploration is very partial and lacunar since it is limited to the analysis of only one model o f "theological figuration," a model inspired by Richard Rorty, an American philosopher.