Goethe described Johann Georg Hamann as the 'brightest mind of his day'. To Kierkegaard and others he was a prophet and seer, admired as a philosopher, theologian, and literary critic. Although his influence over time has often been downgraded to beign a friend to Kant or an obscure critic of the Enlightenment, his legacy is as 'founding father' of what has come to be known as Radical Orthodoxy. AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT is a long overdue, comprehensive introduction to Hamann's fascinating life and controversial work, and its enduing relevance to postmodern philosophical thought.

Hamann stood at the vanguard of a radical movement that challenged the methods and core principles of the Enlightenment. To most intellectuals of the eightennth-century, the Enlightenment represented an unprecedented advance in the history of human thought the triumph of reason over ignorance and superstition. But to Hamann the light of the Enlightment was deceptive, and its proponents, he argued, were simply advancing a new slavery to reason. This book takes a theological perspective of Hamann's works, reprising the debate between those defending Hamann's views and those labeling him the bete noir of the Enlightenment.