Registration for Philosophy and the Outside III Now Open

Nicola Rubczak has informed me that the CRMEP postgraduate conference Philosophy and the Outside III: Materiality/Immateriality is now open. You can also see a timetable of speakers at the site as well.

New Issue of Analecta Hermeneutica and a Performance-Talk by H. Peter Steeves

Some readers may be interested in the latest issue of Analecta Hermeneutica which includes an article I wrote about secular Christologies in Contemporary French philosophy (warning PDF) where I trace the different engagements with the figure of Christ and Christological doctrines one can find in Badiou, Henry, and Laruelle. It is probably entirely predictable which one I valorize…

For Chicago readers I want to recommend H. Peter Steeves upcoming performance piece at DePaul University on Wednesday. Peter is an amazingly gifted thinker and these are always interesting and enjoyable.

Pope Francis and the End of the Theologian-King

Running around circles that includes systematic theologians I know a fair few converts to Catholicism. Systematic theologian often means a late convert, usually white and usually male, who got really into Communio (the link is for those who have no idea what I’m talking about). And many of these converts fervor for Catholicism either began or was deepened because of the Papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. These converts told themselves a story where the modern world was descending into chaos and despair because of the failures of the modern project and in this story it was only the Roman Catholic Church that could resist this descent. Pope Benedict XVI stood as the symbol of that resistance, a “real theologian” that would reinstate a radically orthodox, third way between laissez-faire capitalism and the welfare state. And I say radically orthodox not to overstate the power of those who align themselves with John Milbank and a book series (as he does like to overstate that power), but to say that the reactionary logic of those who write under the banner of Radical Orthodoxy is part of a more general reactionary idealist move in theology we also saw in Pope Benedict XVI.

Boston Hunger Games: Guest Post from Rebekah Sinclair

This post is by Rebekah Sinclair and it was originally posted at her website.

A Hunger-Games-like enthusiasm best characterizes the coverage of last week’s “man hunt” after the Boston bombing. Okay, so they aren’t really the Hunger Games, and perhaps that comparison may even seem too soon and too cruel, but the similarities ought not be lost on us.

Unlike the people of Boston, who immediately chose to emulate the best in humanity—to decry violence and serve one another—the rest of America has not followed their example. Emulating instead the violence at the epicenter of the explosions—the will to do harm and failure to see life through the eyes of and with compassion for its victims—we have turned a tragic and unfortunate chase into a disturbing man hunt. We have uniquely combined the seductive retribution of Bin-Laden-chasing with the nail-biting and immanent excitement of last minute plays at a tied Super Bowl.

Audio for “Honesty is a hindrence when you want to be what is true: On Islamic Taqiyya and Contemporary Philosophy”

A few weeks back I gave a talk on taqiyya and contemporary philosophy at Rowan University (set up by Ed Kazarian who blogs at A Dark Precursor). Some folks have asked for that audio and so here it is. Though be warned that about half of it is not new if you listened to the talk I gave in Liverpool over the summer.

A Lecture, a Review, and a Book Cover

If there are any readers in the New Jersey area I will be giving a lecture at Rowan University this Wednesday (April 3rd) entitled “Honesty is a hindrance if you want to be what is true: On Islamic Taqiyya and Contemporary Philosophy”. It begins at 4:45pm in Robinson Hall, Room 101.

I also saw today that the edited volume Spinoza Beyond Philosophy was reviewed very favorably by Moria Gatens. Beth Lord did a wonderful job putting together this volume and I was very honored to be a part of it. I am glad that it has been well received by the community of Spinoza scholars. If you are able to please request that your library buy a copy (it would be nice to see a paperback, but I’m not sure if that’s planned).

Finally, I am also really happy to show you the cover for my forthcoming book A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature: Ecologies of Thought. The book will be out this July as a hardback and cheaper eBook. I have been told a paperback will follow.

James KA Smith On Being Beyond Left and Right

So James KA Smith has often been a proponent of Radical Orthodox Christian political theology being “beyond left and right”, you know like Benedict XVI was. In recent days on his twitter feed he has come out against gay marriage. That is not surprising, though he’s of course couching it as a question of who gets to define marriage and doing so in an utterly idealist manner (so the state doesn’t get to in his view, but no discussion of how the state supports marriage and how that plays out in terms of equality). But he has also come out in support of the state of emergency provisions imposed by Michigan Governor Synder (R, of course) upon the City of Detroit. Suspending its democratically elected city government and installing an unelected “business manager” (we all know what this means…). He will bristle and sneer at this being called fascist, but this is exactly fascism. The state and capitalism coming together under a state of emergency. And the Christian witness to that fascism is a sneer at critical voices and an expression that the installed, unaccountable leader be a “catalyst for indigenous change”.

So, once again we see that beyond left and right always means right-wing policies plus a few token remarks about community and poverty. Or, like I said with Benedict, Bonoism but no gays.

Red Shoes or Black Shoes? Does It Matter?: On the Symbolism of Pope Francis

One thing that Benedict XVI understood was the power of a good symbol. Take the famous red shoes that Benedict was often seen wearing. What seemed to many non-Catholics to be a bizarrely fashionable choice for someone supposed to represent a poor carpenter put to death by the Roman state in some global backwater was actually a symbol for many conservative Roman Catholics and to the Eastern Orthodox Church. The red shoes was a sign of rank in imperial Rome and when the old imperial roles began to be taken up by the new Christian rulers after the legalization and institutionalization this sign of rank transferred from imperial Roman senators to the Pope. As a matter of tradition only the Pope could wear these shoes, not the Patriarch of Constantinople, symbolizing the position of the Vicar of Rome being above that of any other leader in the Christian church, Roman Catholic or otherwise. This decision to reinstate this symbolic use of shoes is completely in line with Benedict’s ecclesiology, a message that the other branches of Christianity were welcome to come back under the control of Rome but that Rome would not be changing in response in the light of any future reconciliation.

Secular Inquiry into Catholicism: A Series of Reflections on the Election of Pope Francis

It has been a little over a week now since Pope Francis* was elected. Working as I do in the Department of Religion at a Catholic university and as my research is in religion and philosophy I followed the news as one does. A bit of interest, a lot of resignation, and some trepidation since these elections can have real impacts on educators working in the Catholic system. I think my own views on Roman Catholicism are well known. Unlike many of my staunchly secular friends I am less likely to simply consign the whole of the Catholic world to the flames of history, but I am also not at all an apologist for the institution, the people that make it up, or the ideas that it propagates. I’ve touched on this in many of my posts here (here and here I discuss my decision, around age 19 or 20, not to convert to Roman Catholicism, though it was the religion of my childhood but I was never baptized or confirmed into it), but it bears pointing out a few reasons why Catholicism is still worth thinking about and engaging from the perspective of a left-wing, philosophical position.

Total Depravity or the Failure of Creation: A Review of Roland Boer’s Nick Cave: A Study of Love, Death & Apocalypse

“I don’t believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do”
- Into My Arms

“I believe in God
I believe in mermaids too
I believe in 72 virgins on a chain
Why not? Why not?”
- Mermaids

The incredibly prolific Roland Boer is perhaps best known for his monumental Criticism of Heaven and Earth series which traces the importance and engagement with religion one finds in Marxist thought (currently three of the projected five volumes have been published). Among the books we would expect to find, including his recent collection The Earthly Nature of the Bible seeing him returning to his primary training in biblical studies in order to uncover the earthy and crude character of much of the Bible, his recent book on Nick Cave might seem a strange addition. Yet what we find here is typical of Boer’s work in general; combining a clarity of writing, ease with difficult concepts, genuine insights, and all presented with his typical crude and roguish sense of humor. More importantly what we find it is not some hobbyhorse book, but one that offers a genuinely interesting reading of Nick Cave’s artistic output (more on that below) and which fits within Boer’s own research agenda of Marxism and theology.  Here I will outline the contents of the book before turning to a disagreement I hope can move along into an interesting conversation.