Vattimo & Joachim of Fiore

In this episode, I return to Gianni Vattimo’s After Christianity and his provocative reading of Joachim of Fiore, secularization, and the possibility of a Christianity after metaphysics. Vattimo helps us imagine secularization not as the simple disappearance of faith, but as one of Christianity’s own historical effects — a weakening of domination rooted in the incarnation and the self-emptying of God.I explore Joachim’s vision of the age of the Spirit, where faith is no longer secured by literalism, fear, or institutional control, but opened through interpretation, freedom, and charity. For Vattimo, the limit of interpretation is not rigid dogma or an outdated metaphysics of nature, but love itself — ama et fac quod vis, love and do what you will.This episode is about what remains after the death of the metaphysical God: not nihilism, but a more fragile and generous Christianity, one shaped by weakness, hospitality, spiritual reading, and the possibility that the Spirit still breathes where it wants.