Flaneuring with Vattimo: The annotative hermeneutics of weak thought

This article rethinks the future of continental philosophy of religion through a central, annotative reading of Gianni Vattimo's Not Being God. The reading develops from Agamben on citation and Zizek on the short-circuit into a new reading strategy of annotation as a development of weak thought. It argues for what is termed the flanerie of the weak thought of annotation, rethinking the future of continental philosophy of religion as para-thought. The future envisioned is a future that flaneurs, annotates and is para-to both the religious and laicity and their associated strong claims and metaphysics. For Vattimo, weak thought helps us see that if we read Nietzsche as an announcement and not a claim, hermeneutics teaches us we cannot conceive ultimate objective truths. Therefore, after Heidegger, we reach the end of metaphysics and the age of weak thought, where we respond only to appeals and announcements.