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

Public lecture: Žižek on "emancipatory political theology"

New York Public Library (NYPL), Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Bartos Forum, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York City, USA, 9 November 2010, 7.00 pm

Public lecture by Slavoj Žižek: "God Without the Sacred: The Book of Job, The First Critique of Ideology"

www.nypl.org/events/programs/2010/11/09/salvoj-zizek?nref=56896

Description: "The three religions of the Book each help us to differentiate the divine from the sacred. This liberating concept culminates in Paul's claim, from Ephesians, that 'our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against leaders, against authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual wickedness in the heavens.' Can religious fundamentalism be overcome only with the help of an emancipatory political theology? Philosopher Slavoj Zizek debates this and other incendiary questions [...]."

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.

$25 general admission, $15 Friends of the NYPL, seniors and students with valid ID. Tickets can be bought from the website above.

CFP: Religion and Liberation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Conference "Religion and Liberation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives" of Durham University's Department of Theology, Faith and Globalization Programme, and Centre for Catholic Studies, at St Cuthbert's Catholic Church (University Chaplaincy), Durham, UK, 17 December 2010,
9.00 am-6.30 pm

http://religionandliberation.wordpress.com

Call for papers

Description: "Current debates about religion and politics tend towards two positions: 1) concern over the danger of religious extremism; 2) criticism of religious traditions' conservative positions on social issues. While these debates are important, their dominance often eclipses the significant history of religiously rooted liberation movements. This conference aims to address this often-overlooked connection through the investigation of three themes: 1) historical analysis of religiously rooted liberation movements; 2) theoretical analysis of the connection between religious ideas and theories of liberation; and 3) critical analysis of religion's role in contemporary philosophy and critical theory. Through this investigation, we seek to show how the theoretical and historical elements within these traditions may provide a complementary critical resource which enables communities to work on solutions to the crises confronting contemporary society."

The organizers welcome submission on these or other related topics: Religious responses to the political and economic effects of globalization, including the responses of indigenous religious traditions; Theoretic, sociological, or historical perspectives on the role of religious traditions in struggles for human rights; Theoretical, sociological, or historical perspectives on Islamic or Christian liberation theology; Religion and the financial crisis; Religion and environmental activism; Connections between theological traditions and the critique of political economy; Religion and forms of social organization; Religion, politics of identity and contemporary social movements; Influence of theological traditions on political or economic structures; Regional assessments of the current status of liberation theology.

Keynote speakers: Philip Goodchild (University of Nottingham), "The Future of Liberation", and Roland Boer (University of Newcastle, Australia), "Kairos and Akairós"

To propose a paper, please send a title and a 400-word abstract to: t.j.lynch@durham.ac.uk

Deadline: 19 November 2010

Participants will be informed by 26 November.

Registration fee: £5

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.

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.

Book: Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision

A new book edited by Douglas Harink: "Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision: Critical Engagements with Agamben, Badiou, Zizek, and Others" (Wipf and Stock, February 2010):

http://wipfandstock.com/store/Paul_Philosophy_and_the_Theopolitical_Vision_Critical_Engagements_with_Agamben_Badiou_Zizek_and_Others

Publisher's description: "The apostle Paul was a man of many journeys. We are usually familiar with the geographical ones he made in his own time. This volume traces others – Paul's journeys in our time, as he is co-opted or invited to travel (sometimes as abused slave, sometimes as trusted guide) with modern and recent Continental philosophers and political theorists. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Benjamin; Taubes, Badiou, Zizek, and Agamben – Paul journeys here among the philosophers. In these essays you are invited to travel with them into the regions of philosophy, hermeneutics, political theory, and theology. You will certainly hear the philosophers speak. But Paul will not remain silent. Above the sounds of the journey his voice comes through, loud and clear."

Endorsements: "To the surprise of many, the apostle Paul has brought new energy to continental philosophy. But to date, the 'Pauline turn' in contemporary theory has been rather isolated from scholars in biblical studies – where Paul is undergoing a different kind of reconsideration. Finally, this volume changes all of that, bringing together philosophers, biblical scholars, and theologians to assess and engage the 'postmodern Paul,' intimating a Pauline revolution that not even Zizek could have dreamed." (James K. A. Smith, Calvin College)

"[A] dialogue rich with insights flowing in both directions – from modern theory to new (or recovered) angles of illumination on Paul, and from the apostle's charged texts back to the presuppositions and conceits of modern theory. That the view of Paul often pressed is 'apocalyptic,' in the sense of drawing on the seminal work of J. Louis (Lou) Martyn, makes the analysis still richer. The result is a book that both educates and delights." (Douglas A. Campbell, Duke Divinity School)

"[The] secular despoilers of Paul are themselves despoiled here, and Christian theology has set before it a wealth of provocations to better faithfulness and understanding. [...] Philosophers and theologians alike are well reminded – indeed well warned – of the dynamite they take into their hands when, in quest of a better human politics, they turn to Paul." (Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen)

Douglas Harink is Professor of Theology at The King's University College, Edmonton, Canada.

Book: Minjung and Process: Minjung Theology in a Dialogue with Process Thought

Minjung theology is Korean political/liberation theology. Books (in English) about it are rather rare. In 2009, Hiheon Kim's "Minjung and Process: Minjung Theology in a Dialogue with Process Thought" was published by Peter Lang:

www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?vID=11735

Publisher's description: "This book reconstructs the legacy of Korean minjung theology by reformulating its essential ideas in a dialogue with process thought. In a minimal sense, this study is a theological reinterpretation of the doctrine of the minjung messiah, an idea which historically suffered from a misunderstanding that minjung theology created a 'messianic confusion' while replacing christology and soteriology by a radical anthropology. This erroneous conception occurred when the idea was placed within the philosophically dualistic framework of traditional doctrines in which the work of minjung is totally separated from the work of Christ. In order to avoid such a dualistic understanding, the author critically adopts process panentheism and makes minjung ideas more communicable and more comprehensive in current theological, religious, and philosophical debates. Beyond defending the idea of the minjung messiah, he also argues for an inclusive minjung hermeneutics that promotes the fundamental insight of minjung theology, in philosophical clarity. Through minjung hermeneutics, minjung theology expands its practical concern and overcomes the theoretical nihilism in postmodern studies."

Hiheon Kim received his PhD in 2007 from Claremont Graduate University (Philosophy of Religion and Theology programme). He served as a local pastor over ten years in Korea and the US and is now teaching at Hanshin University, Osan, Korea.

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.