Below is a working draft of my 150-word abstract for a project I’m currently proposing. I throw it out now (1) in order finally to post something new here, and (2) to get any thoughts or recommendations from the mases. If you’re interested enough, I might even post the 750-word elaboration.
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This project traces the theological subtext behind the politics and aesthetics of craftsmanship developed by John Ruskin and William Morris (with their American contemporary, Henry David Thoreau, in the background). I argue that the Arts and Crafts movement of 1875-1920 that they pioneered conceptualizes what we call here a ‘theological poetics of resistance’. Craftsmanship, as envisioned by Ruskin and enacted by Morris, is a means of resistance inasmuch as it aims to outstrip, if not altogether nullify, the political and economic alternatives presented as realistic and/or viable. Moreover, we contend that craftsmanship embodies a ‘theological poetics’ inasmuch as its resistance does not simply establish another position or perspective, or set itself strictly in utopic opposition to the present, but is the intentional practice of thinking and creating that is in fundamental excess to the existent horizon of being into which the present unfolds and from which all positions have meaning.
Sunday, February 18, 2007 at 8:52 pm
You should post the 750 word elaboration.
Sunday, February 18, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Yes, please do.
Sunday, February 18, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Hmmmm…I think you’ve also whet my appetite just enough that I am really interested in the longer elaboration, if only to satiate my curiosity about what you mean by “resistance”–that is, how it “oustrips, if not altogether nullifies, the political and economic alternatives”–but also, and maybe more importantly to me, “theological poetics” which is excessive to the “existent horizon of being.” Part of my curiosity about the latter is how you understand this in relationship to “Radical Orthodoxy” and their “theological poetics.” They would also say that their poesis is one that exceeds the ontic horizon. Just for kicks and giggles, in other words, how would you understand this project in relationship to David Bentley Hart’s “theological aesthetics”?
Monday, February 19, 2007 at 7:45 am
Thanks to the encouragement of others, the rest of the proposal has now been posted.
And, Dave, I think it should give some kind of answers to your questions here. If you want, we can discuss them more in full up there.
Also … I should note that I edited my abstract since posting it here. Esp. that final sentence, w/ the very ambiguous use of ‘being’. It now reads:
“Moreover, I argue, craftsmanship embodies the praxis of a non-confessional ‘theological poetics’, where resistance does not simply establish another politico-economic position or perspective, or set itself in utopian, transcendent opposition to the present; it is, rather, an intentional practice of thinking and creating, and is a fundamental aesthetic excess to the existent horizon of reality and expectation presented in our political economies.”