Book: Paul's New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology

Just published: John Milbank, Slavoj Žižek, and Creston Davis, "Paul's New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology" (Brazos Press, November 2010):

www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=0477683E4046471488BD7BAC8DCFB004&nm=&type=PubCom&mod=PubComProductCatalog&mid=BF1316AF9E334B7BA1C33CB61CF48A4E&tier=3&id=ADFAD5A4E6444C54BA7481B53085B80B

Publisher's description: "Are there moments in Christian history when non-Christians in some ways understand Christianity better than Christians? The church fathers and mothers often did especially acute theology because they could remember well what it meant to inhabit non-Christian philosophies and religions. The Hindu Gandhi saw and acted on something in Christ's witness that many confessing Christians overlooked. Today some leading secular thinkers have turned to a surprising source: the apostle Paul. The rediscovery of Paul by atheistic or agnostic European philosophers is one of the most striking recent developments in philosophy – and certainly one of keen interest to the church. Bringing together Radical Orthodox theologian John Milbank, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, and Creston Davis, who has been a student of both, this book reflects on Paul's new moment in secular philosophy. In a debate format, Zizek brings Marxist and post-Marxist ideas into a discussion with Milbank about the influence of Paul. The book also includes a contribution from Catherine Pickstock."

Endorsement: "What is at stake is nothing less than our escape from the ubiquity of multitudinous fundamentalisms, bourgeois liberalism, and the late capitalism that has captured the West today. For those navigating theology and the political, this collection of essays is timely, riveting, and well worth our focus and attention." (David Fitch, Northern Seminary)

A year ago, Davis announced this book on his blog as being "on St. Paul, the Liturgy, and Political Theology".

John Milbank is Professor in Religion, Politics and Ethics at the University of Nottingham.

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, and International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Creston Davis is Assistant Professor of Religion at Rollins College.

CFP: Radical Orthodoxy: A Journal of Theology, Philosophy and Politics

"Radical Orthodoxy: A Journal of Theology, Philosophy and Politics" is a new international peer reviewed journal dedicated to exploring academic and policy debates that interface between theology, philosophy, and the social sciences. The editors describe the journals policy as "radically non-partisan" and welcome submissions from scholars and intellectuals "with interesting and relevant things to say about the nature and trajectory of the times in which we live".

They explain that the journal will normally be published four times a year – each volume comprising of standard, special, review, and current affairs issues. The journal will also attempt to pursue an innovative editorial policy by publishing pieces both longer and shorter than those typically published in mainstream academic journals (along with those of standard length).

The first issue of the journal will appear online in autumn 2011: a double special issue on the theology, philosophy, and politics of life. This issue will explore the wider intellectual ramifications of so-called new vitalist philosophical discourses as well as the growing importance of controversies about the nature and significance of life to contemporary theological and social-scientific debates. In particular, submissions are invited on the following subjects: Life and creativity; Everyday life; Life and the gift; Grace and nature; Thomism and vitalism; Life and phenomenology; Michel Henry; The historical significance of 'Deleuzianism'; Nihilism and eliminative materialism; Bio-politics; The philosophy of biology; The theology, philosophy, politics of the neurosciences; Life and cybernetics.

Deadline for submissions for the special issue: 31 August 2011

All paper submissions (for the special issue and later regular issues) should be sent to Neil Turnbull (Editor) or Eric Austin Lee (Managing Editor): papersubmissions@radicalorthodoxy.org

Political theology articles, fifth installment

A fifth installment of recent articles on political theology:

Christopher Craig Brittain (University of Aberdeen), "Political Theology at a Standstill: Adorno and Agamben on the Messianic", Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology, 102 (1), August 2010: pp. 39-56.

Abstract: "This essay explores the use of the concept of the messianic by Giorgio Agamben and Theodor Adorno. Throughout his work, Agamben consistently presents his reading of the messianic as an alternative to what he considers to be the 'pessimistic' negative dialectics of Adorno, which he argues 'is an absolutely non-messianic form of thought'. For Agamben, the messianic brings dialectics to a 'standstill'. This essay analyzes this deployment of the 'messianic' in his thought, and contrasts it with the perspective of Adorno. Agamben's interpretation of Walter Benjamin is challenged with reference to a debate between Adorno and Benjamin over theology, dialectics, and politics."

Clare Monagle (Monash University), "A Sovereign Act of Negation: Schmitt's Political Theology and its Ideal Medievalism", Culture, Theory and Critique, 51 (2), July 2010: pp. 115-27.

Abstract: "This article argues that Carl Schmitt's political theology is premised on an idealised and totalising vision of the Middle Ages. That is, he casts modern political concepts as debased and corrupt in comparison to the proper politics of the Medieval Church, as he sees it. Drawing on a historically contextualised reading of the Fourth Lateran Council, which took place in 1215, the article's author argues that Schmitt's medieval comparison is much more complicated than he suggests. Schmitt's historical vision is, thus, a wilful projection of unity onto a diverse and distant past."

Jürgen Fohrmann (University of Bonn) and Dimitris Vardoulakis (University of Western Sydney), "Enmity and Culture: The Rhetoric of Political Theology and the Exception in Carl Schmitt", Culture, Theory and Critique, 51 (2), July 2010: pp. 129-44.

Abstract: "This article compares Carl Schmitt's and Walter Benjamin's discussion of the figure of Hamlet. This comparison evaluates Schmitt's response in Hamlet or Hecuba to Benjamin's discussion of the 'exception' in Origins of the German Tragic Drama. 'Deciding upon the exception' is a defining characteristic of sovereignty, so that the comparison between Schmitt and Benjamin is also an evaluation of their respective theories of sovereignty. It will appear that the notion of the aesthetic is crucial in understanding this constellation of ideas."

Dimitris Vardoulakis (University of Western Sydney), "The Ends of Stasis: Spinoza as Reader of Agamben", Culture, Theory and Critique, 51 (2), July 2010: pp. 145-56.

Abstract: "Agamben contends that 'There is ... no such thing as a stasiology, a theory of stasis or civil war' in the western understanding of sovereignty. His own vision of a politics beyond biopolitics explicitly culminates in the end of stasis. How can we understand Agamben's political theology by investigating his use of stasis? Stasis is particularly suited to an inquiry into political theology. It is linked to politics, since its primary meaning is political change, revolution, or civil war, as well as to the theological, since it denotes immobility or immutability, which were attributes of God. Stasis, then, presents the simultaneous presence and absence that exemplifies the unassimilable relation of the sacred and the secular in political theology. The question is: Does Agamben remain true to this unassimilable relation? Or does he betray it the moment he calls for an end to biopolitics? Agamben's reading of Spinoza will provide useful clues in answering these questions."

Ben Quash (King's College London), "Radical Orthodoxy's Critique of Niebuhr", in "Reinhold Niebuhr and Contemporary Politics: God and Power", eds. Richard Harries and Stephen Platten (Oxford University Press, March 2010): pp. 58-71.

http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199571833.do

Abstract: "Reinhold Niebuhr's 'Christian realism' was in significant part a rejection of the pacifism and optimism of the Social Gospel movement in the United States. Even though Niebuhr had initially been sympathetic to the movement, he came to dismiss its belief that the realization of the kingdom of God, proclaimed by Jesus, could be expected in the foreseeable future. He thought the movement's great confidence in human progress was naiïve [sic], and that its belief in education's power to foster a law of love (and thus to eradicate the sin of selfishness from individuals and institutions) lacked a proper understanding of original sin. Recognizing the force of Niebuhr's criticisms of the Social Gospel movement, this chapter sets out to ask whether Niebuhr's thought is as effective a riposte to another and much more recent strand of thought in Christian ethics: the ecclesially centered ethics of Radical Orthodoxy. Measuring Radical Orthodoxy's thought against Niebuhr's is given added interest by the fact that Radical Orthodox thinkers themselves – and especially John Milbank – have explicitly and critically engaged Niebuhr, and have described what they see as the 'poverty' of his idea of Christian realism for contemporary ethics."

Stephen Platten (Anglican Bishop of Wakefield), "Niebuhr, Liturgy, and Public Theology", in "Reinhold Niebuhr and Contemporary Politics: God and Power", eds. Richard Harries and Stephen Platten (Oxford University Press, March 2010): pp. 102-16.

Abstract: "This chapter argues that it is a mistake to understand liturgy as being enacted in a place of withdrawal from society. Liturgy is a public event with a relationship to public life. If this is understood it ought to be possible to have a much more integral relationship between the kind of political theology represented by Niebuhr and liturgy as performative and transformational for society as a whole."

Kevin Carnahan (Central Methodist University), "The Irony of American Evangelical Politics", in "Reinhold Niebuhr and Contemporary Politics: God and Power", eds. Richard Harries and Stephen Platten (Oxford University Press, March 2010): pp. 202-18.

Abstract: "American evangelical political theology is facing a crisis of self-identity. Many evangelicals have claimed that evangelical political theology has been taken captive by the Republican Party. In reaction, evangelical reformers have attempted to wrest their political theology from the grip of partisan political programs. God, they claim, is not a Republican or a Democrat. Despite agreement on this project, however, proposals in American evangelicalism have failed to provide a political theology that maintains a sense of evangelical public responsibility and a sense of God's transcendence over partisan political debates. This chapter argues that Niebuhrian Christian Realism offers a theological approach that could open new avenues for political thought which might carry evangelicals past their present conundrum."

Michael S. Hogue (Meadville Lombard Theological School), "After the Secular: Toward a Pragmatic Public Theology", Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 78 (2), June 2010: pp. 346-74.

Abstract: "In a time after the secular and of rapid religious change, of increasing interreligious contacts and globally scaled, viscerally local moral challenges, questions of public theology have become central for scholars of religion in many fields, as well as for explicitly normative theological projects. In response to this, this article offers the initial contours of a pragmatic public theology that engages global moral challenges amidst the conditions of pluralism and an ethos of religious transformation. I illustrate this pragmatic public theology as an inter-traditional public theological mode that is methodologically fallibilized, doxologically rather than apologetically focused, strategically engaged in medias res between traditions and global and local moral challenges, and normatively committed to the nurturance of differentiated moral solidarities with and on behalf of the most vulnerable."

Heinrich Bedford-Strohm (University of Bamberg, Germany), "Public Theology and the Economy in a Globalizing World", Dutch Reformed Theological Journal/Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif, 51 (1-2), March/June 2010: pp. 15-23.

Excerpt: "This paper was read at the Theological Day of the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University[,] on 25 January 2010. Speaking on 'Public Theology and the economy in a globalizing world' in 30 minutes is a real challenge. The themes of Public Theology, of basic assumptions of economics and of what we mean by the word 'globalization' would be each one a lecture of its own. And yet the connection of the three is exactly what needs to be discussed. The challenge of a globalizing world which has destructive effects on the natural environments and which still tolerates the poverty caused [sic] death of thousands of human beings every day is clearly on the table. I will leave describing these challenges of globalizations more closely to others today and focus on the theological grounding. After a reflection on the relationship of theology and economics in the reformation traditions, I will describe the place of a public theological model of economic ethics in the context of several other models. I will explain what it entails by distinguishing four dimensions of ethical reflection and conclude with exploring the task of the church in a globalizing world."

Guillermo Hansen (Luther Seminary), "Contours for a Public Lutheran Theology in the Face of Empire", Dialog: A Journal of Theology, 49 (2), summer 2010: pp. 96-107.

Abstract: "Three themes structure Lutheranism's interpretation of the biblical narrative as it intersects with the present challenges of Empire: justification by faith as a declaration of inclusiveness; God's threefold-multidimensional action creating and sustaining democratic practices (two kingdoms); and the cross as the critical 'weapon' against the 'glory' of Empire. This implies placing our theology within the present cultural and religious debate in a way consistent with the methodology of the cross: a theology done from the bowels of Empire, revealing its true face behind its alleged 'benevolent' mask."

Paul Hedges (University of Winchester), "Is John Milbank's Radical Orthodoxy a Form of Liberal Theology? A Rhetorical Counter", The Heythrop Journal, 51 (5), September 2010: pp. 795-818.

Excerpt: "The title of this work is intended to be deliberately provocative. In one sense the answer is very clear: no. With an insistence upon unquestioning Chalcedon Orthodoxy, a turn to the resources of the past (especially the fathers and medieval theology) and an avowed rejection of Kant's metaphysics, Milbank's work is the utter antithesis of much liberal theology. I will seek to show that Milbank's theology has features that are often said to be characteristic of liberal theologies, however, and that it has not escaped the shackles of the modernist/liberal worldview it seeks to repudiate. Moreover, I will ask important questions about the increasingly pejorative tag of 'liberal'; many scholars observe that the use of 'conservative' as a blanket term is highly problematic, yet they still deploy 'liberal' in a monolithic sense."

Robert S. Taylor (University of California, Davis), "Kant's Political Religion: The Transparency of Perpetual Peace and the Highest Good", The Review of Politics, 72 (1), winter 2010: pp. 1-24.

Abstract: "Scholars have long debated the relationship between Kant's doctrine of right and his doctrine of virtue (including his moral religion or ethico-theology), which are the two branches of his moral philosophy. This article will examine the intimate connection in his practical philosophy between perpetual peace and the highest good, between political and ethico-religious communities, and between the types of transparency peculiar to each. It will show how domestic and international right provides a framework for the development of ethical communities, including a kingdom of ends and even the noumenal ethical community of an afterlife, and how the transparency and trust achieved in these communities are anticipated in rightful political society by publicity and the mutual confidence among citizens that it engenders. Finally, it will explore the implications of this synthesis of Kant's political and religious philosophies for contemporary Kantian political theories, especially those of Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls."

Stephan Rindlisbacher (University of Bern), "Radicalism as Political Religion? The Case of Vera Figner", Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 11 (1), March 2010: pp. 67-87.

Abstract: "Vera Figner was a leading member of the Russian terrorist group Narodnaia Volia [People's Will] in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In her biography one can trace what Eric Voegelin and Emilio Gentile called 'political religion'. They argue that such a political religion is a basic component of mass mobilisation and also plays an important role in the exerting of political violence in totalitarian states in the twentieth century. Vera Figner and her comrades shared a deep belief in the 'Russian people' as a sacralised secular entity. Because of their ascetic conduct of life within the group, they considered themselves as 'moral elite' (virtuosi), able to lead the 'people' to a better future. Within the 'political sect' of Narodnaia Volia the unconditional submission to the authority of the Executive Committee and the resultant political violence against the regime became means to the revolutionary end. Vera Figner continued uncompromisingly in her struggle against the tsarist regime, even after it became clear that there was obviously no chance of success. In her view she had either to prevail or perish for her 'faith'."

Peter Rohloff (Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston), "Liberation Theology and the Voice of the Indigenous Other in Guatemala", Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien, 54 (3), fall 2010: pp. 375-7.

Abstract: "The legacy of the liberation theology in Guatemala is complex. Although it mobilized progressive Catholic forces at times, it has not overcome reactionary and conservative church elements. Most importantly, it has not proven entirely capable of rising above elitism, nor has it moved beyond paternalism toward Maya culture."

Jacob L. Wright (Emory University), "The Commemoration of Defeat and the Formation of a Nation in the Hebrew Bible", Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History, 29 (3), fall 2009: pp. 433-72.

Abstract: "This article argues that the emergence of a 'national' consciousness in Israel and Judah was originally fueled by many factors, such as a confined and remote core territory, a history of tribal allegiances, language, culture, law, cult, and ongoing military conflicts. But more important than these factors or any institution of statecraft was the anticipation of defeat and defeat itself. When life could not continue as usual, and the state armies had been conquered, one was forced to answer the question: Who are we? The biblical architects of Israel's memories responded to this question by (selectively) gathering fragments of their collective past and using this material to construct a narrative that depicts the origins of a people and the history leading up to the major catastrophe. Much of the historical narrative treats the period before the rise of the monarchy, and portrays Israel existing as a people long before it established a kingdom – or to use later European political terminology, it portrays Israel existing as a nation before it gained statehood. This 'national' consciousness represents the precondition for the writing of Israel's history and the maturation of its rich theological and political tradition. In demonstrating these points, the article critiques two trajectories of contemporary scholarship: one that follows Julius Wellhausen in viewing the community that emerged after the loss of statehood as a form of 'church,' and another that sees the great moments of state power as the primary context for the formation of the Hebrew Bible and the rich theological-political thought contained therein."

Hent de Vries (Johns Hopkins), "Fast Forward, or: The Theologico-Political Event in Quick Motion (Miracles, Media, and Multitudes in St. Augustine)", in "How the West Was Won: Essays on Literary Imagination, the Canon, and the Christian Middle Ages for Burcht Pranger", eds. Willemien Otten, Arjo Vanderjagt, and Hent de Vries (Brill, April 2010): pp. 255-80. Available online:

http://humctr.jhu.edu/bin/m/x/hent%20how%20west%20was%20won.pdf

Excerpt: "While suspicious of the abundant expressions of popular religion such as magic and exorcisms, healings and relics, Augustine entertains a complex relationship with the domain of what, traditionally, is conceived as the supernatural. It is this complicated relationship that I wish to bring out in a few broad strokes, mindful of the complexity of the matter and mostly concerned with three or four striking traits of his conception, namely the miracle belief's publicness and publicity, on the one hand, and the miracle's presumed acceleration and fastforwarding of natural processes and, hence, special effect on us, on the other. These are two motifs and motivations that, to my knowledge, have not yet found the attention they deserve. Moreover, Augustine's argument also relies, thirdly, on a conception of multitude and catholicity – indeed, universality or globality – that is not without implications for the philosophical and theologico-political work that his writings continue to inspire and that, anachronistically speaking, they seem to have anticipated all along, not least in their nuanced dealing with and theorization of miracles, their strategic and pragmatic use and momentum, their political but also more generally persuasive and perlocutionary aspect."

Book: The Gift of Difference: Radical Orthodoxy, Radical Reformation

Just published: "The Gift of Difference: Radical Orthodoxy, Radical Reformation", edited by Chris K. Huebner and Tripp York, with a foreword by John Milbank (CMU Press, July 2010):

www.cmu.ca/news/july5giftofdiff.html

Publisher's description (in a press release): "The Gift of Difference is a collection of essays in which theologians such as Craig Hovey, Harry J. Huebner, and D. Stephen Long consider the strengths and weaknesses of Radical Orthodoxy in dialogue with the Radical Reformation tradition. Writers in this volume engage topics such as ecclesiology, martyrdom, worship, oath-taking, peace and violence. In recent years, Radical Orthodoxy has become an important and influential movement in contemporary theology and philosophy. [...] Radical Orthodoxy enlists the resources of classical theology to engage the current strongholds of secular and religious thought. Proponents of Radical Orthodoxy argue that the Enlightenment project to remove reason, ethics, politics and economics from a theological framework culminates in the nihilism of postmodern discourse. They suggest that much contemporary theology is idolatrous in nature because it takes the isolation of such disciplines for granted.

"In the Foreword, John Milbank writes that '[modern Mennonites] see the Church itself as the true polity and (unlike most of the magisterial Reformation) they see the possibility of "living beyond the law" in terms of a new sort of social and political practice.' What might this concrete expression of Christian discipleship have to suggest to a movement like Radical Orthodoxy? What gifts does Radical Orthodoxy offer academics, ministers and laypeople from Radical Reformation tradition? 'This book explores both common and divergent themes between Anabaptist/Mennonite theologians and their counterparts in the Radical Orthodoxy movement,' says co-editor Chris K. Huebner. 'For example, while they jointly reject as false the dualisms characteristic of modernity, the manner in which questions of peace and justice get framed remains an ongoing debate.'"

Endorsements: "What hath the Radical Reformation to do with Anglo-Catholics – especially Anglicans who have a lingering penchant for Christendom? The answer from this book: a lot more than you might expect! Huebner and York have staged a mutually critical interaction between Radical Orthodoxy and Mennonite theology, illuminating both as a result." (James K.A. Smith, Calvin College)

"This book is a breath of fresh air. Retrieving central themes of classical theology, it is both faithful to tradition and innovative, offering a third way between liberalism and conservatism, one which sees theology as critical for public life without privatizing Christianity, on the one hand, or slipping into Constantinianism, on the other." (A. James Reimer, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo)

Chris K. Huebner is Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at the Canadian Mennonite University (CMU).

Tripp York is an Adjunct Instructor of Religious Studies at Western Kentucky University.

CFP: The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion

Postmodernism, Culture and Religion 4 (biennial conference series) "The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion", Syracuse University, New York State, USA, 7-9 April 2011

http://pcr.syr.edu/

Call for papers

Description: "Paper submissions are invited on the topic 'The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion,' its past and present, its history and its prospects, in the widest possible terms, addressing the whole range of it simplications – politics, feminism, constructive theology, philosophy, history, literature, interfaith dialogue, and the hermeneutics of sacred texts. In the past, these conferences, which have provided a forum for the most influential philosophers, theologians, and cultural theorists to interact, have consisted solely of several keynote speakers. This conference will be different. It will feature three plenary speakers and offer multiple concurrent sessions devoted to papers submitted on a diversity of issues relating to the primary theme. This call for papers is deliberately open, befitting the conference's animating concern with the future.

"Papers are invited that address questions like (but not limited to) the following. What now, or what comes next – specifically, after the death, if not of God, at least of the generation consisting of Derrida, Deleuze, Foucault, Levinas, etc.? This question concerns not only the future after those significant theorists, but also the future after-life of these eminent minds who have left such a deep impact on Continental philosophy of religion. What is the future of Kant and German Idealism, of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche in Continental philosophy of religion? What remains for the future of phenomenology? Of the 'theological turn' in the phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion and others? Of Gadamer, Ricoeur and philosophical hermeneutics? Of apophatic or mystical theology? What is the future of feminism and Continental philosophy of religion? What are the status and future of the new trinity of Agamben, Badiou and Zizek? What relevance do the political interpretations of Antonio Negri, Michael Hardt, and the more recent Continental philosophers such as François Laruelle and Catherine Malabou have to philosophy of religion and political theology?

"What about the future of sovereignty, of money and capitalism, as in the work of Philip Goodchild? What is the future of the movements of Radical Orthodoxy and of radical death of God theology, whether in their original or contemporary manifestations? What about the new sciences of information and complexity in thinkers like Mark C. Taylor and Michel Serres? What about Continental philosophy of religion and our 'companion species' in Donna Haraway? What about 'Post-Humanism'? What is the future of Continental [p]hilosophy of religion and Judaism? And Islam? Or world religions generally? What is the relationship between postmodernism, religion and postcolonialism? What role can Continental philosophy play in the future of religion in the USA? In the professional study of religion in the USA? How does Continental philosophical theology relate to the ethnological and empirical-scientific study of religion? How does Continental philosophy of religion differ from traditional philosophy of religion? Or from analytic philosophy of religion? What is continental philosophy of religion anyway?"

Plenary Speakers: John D. Caputo (Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Humanities, Syracuse University); Philip Goodchild (Professor of Religion and Philosophy, University of Nottingham); Catherine Malabou (Professor of Philosophy, Paris West University Nanterre La Défense)

Instructions: Submit electronic copies of completed papers (up to 3000 words). Abstracts cannot be considered. Papers will be subject to a double blind review by a selection committee. Include your name, paper title, and contact information on a separate page. Include the paper title but not your name on a header or footer on each numbered page of the paper itself. The papers must be previously unpublished in any format. The conference reserves the right of first refusal of the submitted paper for inclusion in a projected volume to be based upon the conference.

Deadline: 15 December 2010

Acceptances will be made by 15 February 2011.

Contact for further information and paper submissions: pcrconf@syr.edu

Coordinator: John D. Caputo

Book: Encounter Between Eastern Orthodoxy and Radical Orthodoxy

The contributed volume, "Encounter Between Eastern Orthodoxy and Radical Orthodoxy: Transfiguring the World through the Word", was edited by Adrian Pabst and Christoph Schneider and published by Ashgate in March 2009:

www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=7659&edition_id=10241

Publisher's description: "This book presents the first debate between the contemporary movement Radical Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodox theologians. Leading international scholars offer new insights and reflections on a wide range of contemporary issues from a specifically theological and philosophical perspective. The ancient notion of divine Wisdom (Sophia) serves as a common point of reference in this encounter. Both Radical and Eastern Orthodoxy agree that the transfiguration of the world through the Word is at the very centre of the Christian faith. The book explores how this process of transformation can be envisaged with regard to epistemological, ontological, aesthetical, ecclesiological and political questions. Contributors to this volume include Rowan Williams, John Milbank, Antoine Arjakovsky, Michael Northcott, Nicholas Loudovikos, Andrew Louth and Catherine Pickstock."

Endorsements: "This excellent collection surprises at many turns. It offers not only a unique perspective onto a theological dialogue so far unheard, it also opens up new avenues in theological conversation for both participants – the Radically Orthodox and members of the Eastern Orthodox family. Radical Orthodoxy is pushed to articulate a theology of tradition and to locate its own theology of participation within the Patristic patrimony far more deeply than before; the Eastern Orthodox are pushed toward a re-engagment [sic] with Bulgakov and the theosophical tradition so attractive to the Radically Orthodox. There is much here for all interested in the future of serious theological dialogue." (Lewis Ayres, Emory University)

"This is a stimulating and fruitful exchange between Eastern Orthodoxy and Radical Orthodoxy by leading scholars of each that both draws upon tradition and opens horizons for the future. Addressing the problems of modernity from their different starting points, the collection offers profound material for reflecting upon our own situation. It deserves a wide readership and will amply repay serious engagement."
(John Behr, St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary)

Adrian Pabst is now a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent and a Research Fellow at the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies.

Christoph Schneider was at the time of publication a Research Assistant at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Book: Everything Is Sacred: Spiritual Exegesis in the Political Theology of Henri de Lubac

Bryan C. Hollon, "Everything Is Sacred: Spiritual Exegesis in the Political Theology of Henri de Lubac" (Cascade Books, January 2009):

http://wipfandstock.com/store/Everything_Is_Sacred_Spiritual_Exegesis_in_the_Political_Theology_of_Henri_de_Lubac

Publisher's description: "It is well known that Henri de Lubac's groundbreaking and highly controversial work on nature and grace had important implications for the Church's relationship to culture and was intended to remove a philosophical obstacle hindering Catholicism's faithful engagement with the secular world. This book addresses a too-often-neglected dimension of de Lubac's theological renewal by examining the centrality and indispensability of spiritual exegesis in his oeuvre and making explicit its social and political significance for the Church's worship and witness. In addition to exploring the historical and ecclesial context within which he worked, the current work brings de Lubac into a critical engagement with the more recent theological movements of postliberalism and Radical Orthodoxy in order to demonstrate the enduring significance of his theological vision."

Endorsement: "Hollon offers the best introduction to date on de Lubac's spiritual interpretation of Scripture. His bold recovery of Henri de Lubac's participatory hermeneutic offers an excellent contribution to the rapidly growing scholarship on the French Catholic theologian. The book argues for a hermeneutic that avoids the dual trap of isolating Jesus' biblical identity from the life of the Church (the post-liberal tendency) and of reducing Christology to ecclesiology (the fallacy of Radical Orthodoxy). Hollon convincingly argues that the Church's ontological participation in Christ is mediated through the practice of spiritual interpretation along the lines advocated by de Lubac. The result is both an incisive, sympathetic-critical engagement with contemporary hermeneutics and a superb introduction to one of the central concerns of de Lubac." (Hans Boersma, Regent College, Vancouver)

Bryan C. Hollon is Assistant Professor of Theology at Malone University.

Journal special issue: The Continental Shift

Creston Davis (Rollins College) is the editor of a special issue of the journal "Political Theology" titled "The Continental Shift" (11 [1], March 2010):

www.politicaltheology.com/PT/issue/view/739

From Davis' introduction ("The Continental Shift", pp. 5-14): "What is at stake for political theology today? This is the basic question this issue attempts to address. It is true that the subject of political theology resists a singular definition; indeed the term functions like a nebulous concept – a Rorschach test whose ink markings are given meaning by the individual perceiver [...]. The core of the cosmic scandal to which Paul refers and whose very meaning interrupts in the void of the cross, in death as such, is love. Indeed, it is this dis-possessive exceptional scandal that ruptures the immediate fake 'universal' (law, morality, ethics, politics etc.) and founds a new universal based on the infinity of love that gives birth to rethinking the very foundations of political theology in our time. What's more, this interruption of the status quo (of the fake universal) establishes the universal-exception of the Incarnational Event, which affords the world new coordinates for how humanity is defined in a manner that radically breaks with [Carl] Schmitt's false dichotomy of friend/enemy, among other things. This radical thesis is what we may call the 'continental shift' in political theology."

Strangely, an entry on Davis' blog seems to be significantly clearer about the aim of this issue than is the introduction: "The journal issue takes seriously the thesis that Political Theology is radically open to debate; indeed this issue opens the doors of debate about the very nature of Political Theology after-Schmitt and in the wake of such Continental thinkers as Jean-Luc Nancy, Alain Badiou, J. Taubes, G. Agamben, S. Zizek and others. In light of these thinkers it is clear that the very coordinates of Political Theology has changed forever. I will argue that Schmitt's indebtedness to Hobbesian demonic version of what constitutes the theoretical space called 'the sovereign' needs to be rejected. [...] Thus the thesis of this issue is that there is no one version that defines Political Theology as such, but is rather more like a moving debate that resists a vulgar reduction down to a singular and absolutist view of 'the Political' or 'the Theological.' Political Theology is thus an inherently dynamic process and not a static boring rerun of the same episode called 'the State' or even 'Carl Schmitt' for that matter."

Articles in this special issue include:

Antonio Negri, "The Eclipse of Eschatology: Conversing with Taubes's Messianism and the Common Body" (trans. Bruno Bosteels; pp. 35-41).

Abstract: "In this article Jacob Taubes's idea of eschatology is examined. Taubes's own understanding of eschatology has profound implications on the very expression of political theology and political practice. If politics – as a practice – assumes that time has a terminal point, than it will invariably change this practice and encumber and even neutralize political action of a commonbody that gives voice to the oppressed. This article agrees with Taubes in that eschatology must announce an end to itself, which is at once a birth of a postmodern possibility of the principle of immanence in which a commonbody announces its infinite possibility. The end of eschatology is the end of transcendence and the beginning of a struggle for liberating the infinite possibility of a common-body of labor."

Kenneth Reinhard (UCLA), "There is Something of One (God): Lacan and Political Theology" (pp. 43-60).

Abstract: "For both Lacan and Badiou, Plato's Parmenides is a primary locus for the question of the One. Moreover, for both Lacan and Badiou, the One ultimately takes on political valence, as key to the problematics of representation and the discursive conditions of collectivity. However, unlike Badiou, Lacan's exploration of the question of One also passes through theology – through what I am calling 'something of One God' – and I want to argue that it is only by bringing the One into explicit relationship with those monotheistic issues that we can fully understand its implications for analytic discourse and political life. Lacan's thinking on the 'something of One [sic] takes a necessary swerve back through a theological problematic, and in the process articulates the terms of a political theology, an essential conjunction of political and religious understandings of sovereignty, subjectivity and collectivity."

Daniel M. Bell, Jr. (Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary), "The Fragile Brillance of Glass: Empire, Multitude, and the Coming Community" (pp. 61-76).

Abstract: "Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, and Giorgio Agamben are among a handful of contemporary continental philosophers whose thought of the political proves simultaneously most salutary and vexing for the task of articulating a postliberal Augustinian political theology. Their accounts of the political problem of the early twenty-first century West are most helpful while their anticipation of democracy raises serious questions about the viability of the church as a political formation capable of escaping the clutches of the current terror. In the end I argue that the hope nurtured by Agamben, Hardt and Negri fails to hold out the promise of life beyond empire and this because finally they, and not an Augustinian church, are insufficiently democratic."

Mary-Jane Rubenstein (Wesleyan University), "Capital Shares: The Way Back into the With of Christianity" (pp. 103-19).

Abstract: "In the ten years since the publication of Michael Hardt's and Antonio Negri's *Empire*, the relationship between Christianity and global capital has received increasing theological attention among the adherents, critics, sympathizers, and apostates of Radical Orthodoxy. At stake in this conversation is the possibility that Christianity might provide a universal ontology sufficient to ground a counter-hegemonic, specifically socialist, praxis. One question that many of these authors rarely address, however, is the extent to which Christian universalism has been responsible for the emergence of global capital in the first place. This article will address this profound split at the heart of a tradition; that is, Christianity's culpability for and resistance to global capital. To this end, 'Capital Shares' sketches the aporia of Christianity's relation to Empire and then appeals to Jean-Luc Nancy's 'deconstruction of Christianity'; in particular, his attempt to find 'a source of Christianity, more original than Christianity itself, that might provoke another possibility to arise.'"

Further articles: Clayton Crockett (University of Central Arkansas) and Catherine Malabou (Paris West University Nanterre La Défense), "Plasticity and the Future of Philosophy and Theology" (pp. 15-34); C.C. Pecknold (Catholic University of America), "Migrations of the Host: Fugitive Democracy and the Corpus Mysticum" (pp. 77-101); Joshua Delpech-Ramey (Rowan University), "Supernatural Capital: A Note on the Zizek-Milbank Debate" (pp. 121-5); John Milbank (University of Nottingham), "Without Heaven There is Only Hell on Earth: 15 Verdicts on Zizek's Response" (pp. 126-35); Slavoj Zizek (University of Ljubljana/Birkbeck College), "The Atheist Wager"
(pp. 136-40).

The last three articles assess and continue the debate between John Milbank and Slavoj Žižek started in their joint book "The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?" (MIT Press, April 2009), which was equally edited by Creston Davis.

CFP: Continental Philosophy of Religion

15th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture (ISRLC), at St Catherine's College, University of Oxford, England, 23-26 September 2010

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc2329/index.html

A panel on "Continental Philosophy of Religion" is to be organized for this conference.

The panel invites submissions which consider the turn to religion in recent continental philosophy and the implications this has for understandings of religion, reason, and spiritual practice. If philosophy is called, driven, or solicited to think its other, does this mean that philosophy itself is compelled by a religious dynamic? A particular focus will be on the debate around theological and dialectical accounts of materialism. What kind of thinking does justice to the passion of reason, the integrity of matter, and the injunctions of ethical and political commitment? Relevant thinkers and themes might include Jean-Luc Nancy, Radical Orthodoxy, Slavoj Žižek, Grace Jantzen, phenomenology (Henry, Chrétien, Lacoste, Marion), speculative realism/materialism. However, other relevant submissions will be considered.

The panel is being convened by the Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion:

www.hope.ac.uk/acpr

Panel leaders: Steven Shakespeare and Patrice Haynes (both Liverpool Hope University): shakess@hope.ac.uk, haynesp@hope.ac.uk

Short papers are invited for this panel; contributors should aim to deliver a 20-minute piece with 10 further minutes for questions and discussion. Please send the proposed title of your paper, with an abstract of not more than 500 words, to the convenors of the panel.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 30 March 2010

One of the keynote speakers at the conference will be Graham Ward (University of Manchester), co-editor of "Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology" (Routledge, 1998).

Books: "The Radical Orthodoxy Reader", and essays in political theology

The year 2009 has seen a number of books by John Milbank published. "The Radical Orthodoxy Reader" (Routledge), co-edited with Simon Oliver, includes a chapter, written by Milbank himself, titled "Political Theology and the New Science of Politics":

www.routledge.com/books/The-Radical-Orthodoxy-Reader-isbn9780415425131

From the publisher's description: "The Radical Orthodoxy Reader presents a selection of key readings in the field of [Anglican] Radical Orthodoxy, the most influential theological movement in contemporary academic theology. Radical Orthodoxy draws on pre-Enlightenment theology and philosophy to engage critically with the assumption and priorities of secularism, modernity, postmodernity, and associated theologies."

Already in January 2009, Milbank's "The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology" (Cascade Books) was published:

www.wipfandstock.com/store/The_Future_of_Love_Essays_in_Political_Theology

Described thus: "With a newly written preface relating his theology to the current global situation, The Future of Love contains revised versions of eighteen of John Milbank's essays on theology, politics, religion, and culture – ranging from the onset of neoliberalism to its current crisis, and from the British to the global context. [...] Taken together, the collection amounts to a 'political theology' arrived at from diverse angles."

Michael Northcott (University of Edinburgh) writes: "These essays, published over thirty years and gathered in this important new book, demonstrate the consistent acuity and imaginative power of John Milbank's politico-theological vision. Milbank bestrides the Anglosaxon theological world with a project that is uniquely embedded in the romantic, anglocatholic, and socialist critiques of modernity from Coleridge to Ruskin. In this book we see the gradual repristination of these critiques against atheism, humanism, and neoliberalism, and the unfolding of a political theology after the secular in the form of a biblical and realist metaphysic and the neoplatonist sublime. The Future of Love is a powerful rendering of a truer and more virtuous life world than that delivered by the last thirty years of godforsaken market capitalism."

Book: The Politics of Discipleship: Becoming Postmaterial Citizens

Graham Ward (University of Manchester) recently had his new book published, "The Politics of Discipleship: Becoming Postmaterial Citizens" (Baker Academic, September 2009):

www.bakeracademic.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=0477683E4046471488BD7BAC8DCFB004&nm=&type=PubCom&mod=PubComProductCatalog&mid=BF1316AF9E334B7BA1C33CB61CF48A4E&tier=3&id=C5E01AF419374641BEA3063DB0415D7D

Endorsements: "In this book, Graham Ward boldly offers a fresh description of the consumer economy and the processes of globalization, examining the illusions they generate, the states of amnesia they call us into, and the slavery they impose. In the process, he constructs a counter-narrative of a Christian discipleship in the service of postmaterial values that is founded on an eschatological humanism and ecclesiology. The result is a new political theology, powerfully presented, rooted in Scripture and tradition, and fully engaged in reading the postsecular signs of the times." (Peter Manley Scott, University of Manchester)

"For some time now, Graham Ward has blended orthodox theology, biblical study, and cultural theory with an independent originality. Now he has added politics to this mix. The result is simultaneously a greater edge to his own theology and an imbuing of contemporary political theology with more realistic depth and practical prescience than it usually exhibits. An extremely significant volume in the present time." (John Milbank, University of Nottingham)

"With erudition, insight, and sheer imaginative power, Graham Ward examines the complexities and tasks of Christian discipleship in a globalized world. There is no surer guide than Ward to the enticements and dangers of postmodern, postmaterial life – where values themselves have become virtual, adopted for a day – or to the hope of finding the true meaning of our still-present materiality in the practices of church and in the ecclesiality of the body of Christ. Yet Ward's encyclopedic grasp of political theory; his detailed, often dazzling readings of Scripture; and his profound inhabitation of theology are deployed with a humor and lightness of touch that renders this book both challenging and immensely readable. It is political theology but also a page-turner: impressive, provocative, and impossible to put down." (Gerard Loughlin, Durham University)

The author of the book is part of the Anglican Radical Orthodoxy movement.

Phillip Blond's "ResPublica" think tank and Radical Orthodoxy

Check over at my personal blog for an assessment of the latest development in UK political theology: Phillip Blond, a former Senior Lecturer in theology and philosophy at the University of Cumbria, has been able to raise 1.5 million pounds to launch his own think tank, called "ResPublica":

www.erichkofmel.com/2009/12/phillip-blonds-respublica-think-tank.html

Blond has shot to the attention of the UK media only this year and has been hailed as Tory leader (and possible prime minister come May 2010) David Cameron's "philosopher king". ResPublica was launched on 26 November in the presence of Cameron, but the financial backers behind it remain anonymous. It stands to reason, though, that they are in support of the ideas associated with what Blond calls "Red Toryism".

Phillip Blond is a part of the Anglican Radical Orthodoxy movement. Radical Orthodoxy set out, hardly ten years ago, from Cambridge's Peterhouse College to renew the Church of England. Already the current Archbishop of Canterbury, and head of the Anglican community, Rowan Williams, is said to be an adherent of Radical Orthodoxy. And now the movement has gained influence over Tory policy and the likely next prime minister. Radical-orthodox political theology has a chance to become for the UK what black liberation theology arguably has become under Barack Obama in the US.

CFP: The Politics of Peace

2010 biennial conference of the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology (SCPT), Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania, USA,
16-17 April 2010

Call for papers: "The Politics of Peace"

Keynote speakers:
- Catherine Keller (Drew University)
- William T. Cavanaugh (University of St. Thomas)

SCPT's 2010 conference will focus on Peace. They invite papers that examine the many dimensions of peace from social, political, religious, scientific, theological, and philosophical points of view. They also seek papers dealing with complementary topics such as justice, reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace-making, and that deal with the practical aspects of the above topics.

SCPT is an organization that seeks to promote inquiry at the intersection of philosophy and theology, through the study of phenomenology, deconstruction, feminism, Radical Orthodoxy, and other related fields:

www.scptonline.org

Only complete papers with a maximum of 3,000 words will be accepted. Papers should be prepared for blind review and sent to: peacestudies@messiah.edu

Deadline: 8 February 2010

CONF: 2009 meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Religion

Annual Meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR), Montréal, Canada, 7-10 November 2009

As usual, NAASR will meet concurrently with the American Academy of Religion (AAR). In addition to the four panels on political theology scheduled to take place at the AAR meeting proper (see blog entry of 15 May), a session on political theology has also been announced for the NAASR meeting.

Under the title "Disenchantment and Reenchantment in Political Theology: Diagnosing the Crisis of Liberalism", it is to take place on 6 November, 4-6.30 pm (exact location yet to be determined). The respondent will be John Milbank (University of Nottingham).

Of interest may also be a session titled "Postcoloniality, Secular Critique, and Democratic Futures", at least one speaker and the chair of which are known to be associated with the discourse on political theology (scheduled for 7 November, 9-11.30 am).

Further information is available at:

www.naasr.com/upcomingconferences.html

Book: “The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?”

Those of us who still seek to understand what Slavoj Žižek and political theology could possibly have to do with each other may be interested in the most recent publication from the prolific Creston Davis editorial stables: “The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?”, a dialogue between Žižek and Radical Orthodox theologian John Milbank (MIT Press 2009).

mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11672

From the book ad:

“What matters is not so much that Žižek is endorsing a demythologized, disenchanted Christianity without transcendence, as that he is offering in the end (despite what he sometimes claims) a heterodox version of Christian belief.” – John Milbank

“To put it even more bluntly, my claim is that it is Milbank who is effectively guilty of heterodoxy, ultimately of a regression to paganism: in my atheism, I am more Christian than Milbank.” – Slavoj Žižek

In this corner, philosopher Slavoj Žižek, who represents the critical-materialist stance against religion's illusions; in the other corner, “radical orthodox” theologian John Milbank, an influential and provocative thinker who argues that theology is the only foundation upon which knowledge, politics, and ethics can stand. In “The Monstrosity of Christ”, Žižek and Milbank go head to head for three rounds, employing an impressive arsenal of moves to advance their positions and press their respective advantages. By the closing bell, they have proven themselves worthy adversaries – and have also shown that faith and reason are not simply and intractably opposed.

Žižek has long been interested in the emancipatory potential offered by Christian theology. And Milbank, seeing global capitalism as the new century's greatest ethical challenge, has pushed his own ontology in more political and materialist directions. Their debate in “The Monstrosity of Christ” concerns nothing less than the future of religion, secularity, and political hope in light of a monsterful event – God becoming human. For the first time since Žižek's turn toward theology, we have a true debate between an atheist and a theologian about the very meaning of theology, Christ, the Church, the Holy Ghost, universality, and the foundations of logic. The result goes far beyond the popularized atheist/theist point/counterpoint of recent books by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and others.

Žižek begins, and Milbank answers, countering dialectics with "paradox." The debate centers on the nature of and relation between paradox and parallax, between analogy and dialectics, between transcendent glory and liberation.

Roundtable discussion on “Theology and the Political”

Those interested in philosophical theology as it relates to the political may wish to have a look at the most recent issue of the journal “Political Theology” (no. 1, 2009):

www.politicaltheology.com/ojs/index.php/PT/issue/view/653

Some four years after publication of the book, the journal offers a roundtable discussion of “Theology and the Political: The New Debate” (eds. Creston Davis, John Milbank, and Slavoj Žižek, Duke University Press 2005).

Note of caution: Creston Davis, one of the book's editors, is now a review editor at the journal. One of the contributors to the roundtable discussion is also a contributor to the volume, and other roundtable participants are closely linked to book contributors. Still, those interested particularly in the (self-styled) “new debate” and/or Radical Orthodoxy will find this of interest.