ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the nature of Don Cupitt's engagement to illuminate the question of mystery. Cupitt is well aware of the effect his critique of mystery might have on an audience schooled in both orthodox piety and post-Enlightenment scepticism. The beginnings of an answer is suggested in The World to Come, where Cupitt discusses the work of Fritz Mauthner as an interesting parallel to Ludwig Wittgenstein's ordinary language philosophy. Mauthner claimed that thinking was thoroughly linguistic, and there could be no transcending language to view the world from an absolute perspective. Although it is little enough acknowledged, Cupitt was a pioneering figure in the dialogue between theology and contemporary continental philosophy, especially deconstruction. It is a major factor in his own move away from the model of individualistic autonomy toward a more decentred linguistic philosophy of subjectivity and objectivity.
