Respecting the ineradicable: religion's realism

This article examines interdisciplinary phenomena relating to the so-called ‘return of religion’ alongside a contemporaneous and possibly reactive trend, the ‘return of realism’, as reflected in the recent stir caused by publishing sensations such as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, John Gray's Black Mass, and James Wood's How Fiction Works. The article goes on to argue, with reference to Kant, Nietzsche, Freud, and Derrida, that our critical moment is marked by the necessity of acknowledging the limited power of thought or intellection to change or correct certain structures of belief, here named ineradicable. It will then be suggested that, similar to religion, realism possesses an ineradicable element of faith that can be detected in the persistence of religious ideas about endings within contemporary culture. While claiming that it is ultimately impossible to have any real knowledge of death, the article considers the significance of death's recurrent appearance as a source (or fantasy) of secular wisdom, functioning in various discourses as a ‘God term’