Michael Raposa says an obligation lies at the root of his writing Theosemiotic: Religion, Reading, and the Gift of Meaning (2020). The chapter introducing and coining the term ‘theosemiotic’ in his earlier work Peirce's Philosophy of Religion (1989), was like a “promissory note” for a future development of that idea.1Theosemiotic wonderfully pays the bill. Although this essay is first and foremost an attempt to illuminate the meaning and internal logic of Raposa's book, it also takes up meaning in terms of “what follows from” the text. Raposa incites a community of inquiry centered on Peirce and religion, and in this essay, I follow and extend that work by exploring agreements, challenges, and possible developments from the platform of theosemiotic.
Though he focuses primarily on the thought of Charles Sanders Peirce, this is much, much more than a Peirce book. It was Peirce, the systematic and enigmatic powerhouse of...
