Caputo on Derrida and Travel, Journey and Truth

I've enjoyed reading several of John Caputo's books.  My favorite is What Would Jesus Deconstruct. The following is an excerpt from a Dec 17, 2014 interview by Amy Frykholm with Caputo that appears in the Christian Century.

When Jacques Derrida would come to Philadelphia, I would say to him, “Let me take you on a tour. Let me show  you the Liberty Bell or Valley Forge.” But he didn’t want to go. His way to explore a city was to walk until he got lost and then try to find his way back. In the process, he would discover all kinds of things. Both personally and as a philosopher, he thought that being genuinely lost and seeking something is a crucial part of the journey. We expose ourselves to the unknown and the unforeseeable. Truth is like that.

Travel can be a spiritual discipline.  This is great advice.

Dostoevsky Statue in Wiesbaden Aug 29, 1999

Kiril, Vitaly, and Nikolai

Playhouse in Wiesbaden


Me next to statue of Dostoevsky in this park in Wiesbaden where Dostoevsky came to gamble. I took a picture of my Russian friends next to the statue. But since I can't find it, that photo must have been taken with their camera.

That day, it was a Sunday, we started out just south of Bonn in the town of Bad Honnef. Because they wanted to see every possible thing, we stopped many places along the way to the Frankfurt airport, including this park in Wiesbaden. We had been to a Gravity conference. Vitaly is the most well travelled person I've ever known. He's a well known gravity physicist. I had met Kiril in London about 9 months earlier. It was the first time out of Russia for Nikolai. They were happy to find this statue and they were clearly and justifiably proud.