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At the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America, there is a forthcoming conference entitled The Nature of Experience: Issues in Culture, Science, and Theology, which will be held December 3-5, 2009.
For information about the Symposium, please call 202-526-3799 or contact information@johnpaulii.edu. Registration ends Friday, November 20, 2009.
Speakers include David L. Schindler, D. C. Schindler, Conor Cunningham, Michael Hanby, Nicholas Healy, amongst others.
Please click here for more details.
Conor Cunningham's BBC2 documentary "Did Darwin Kill God?" gets syndication on ABC Compass, and will air on 22 November 2009 at 22:10. For details click here.
Off the presses this week: The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth: Christ, Scripture and the Church, a collection of essays from the conference of the same name held at the University of Nottingham in the summer of 2008. Published by SCM Press in conjunction with the Centre of Theology and Philosophy in the Veritas series, edited by Adrian Pabst and Angust Paddison.
Details:
The publication of the book Jesus of Nazareth on 16 April 2007 was an unprecedented event: never before had a reigning Pope published personal reflections on Jesus. Benedict XVI's book engages not just with New Testament scholarship but also with fundamental methodological questions related to historical criticism.
The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth provides essays by some of the leading scholars in Britain, continental Europe and the USA to highlight the insights and limits of the Pope's reflection on Jesus. Specifically, it engages with the book from critical, cross-disciplinary and different faith perspectives.
Contributors include: Richard Bell, Markus Bockmuehl, Peter Casarella, Roland Deines, Henri-Jérôme Gagey, Richard B. Hays, Fergus Kerr OP, Francisco Javier Martínez, John Milbank, R. W. L. Moberly, George Dennis O'Brien, Angus Paddison, Adele Reinhartz, Mona Siddiqui, and Olivier-Thomas Venard OP.
Endorsements previously mentioned here.
Additionally, out last month is a volume entitled Divine Transcendence and Immanence in the Work of Thomas Aquinas, a collection of studies presented at the Third Conference of the Thomas Instituut te Utrecht, 15-17 December 2005. Edited by Harm Goris, Herwi Rikhof, and Henk Schoot, this volume contains essays by CoTP members Rudi te Velde, Harm Goris, and Conor Cunningham. The full table of contents may be found here.
Collection description:
The terms 'transcendence' and 'immanence' are often used casually and as self-evident. The spatial imagery contained in their meaning determines the way they are understood and used: as opposites, like 'there' and 'here'. As a consequence, the two concepts are seen as mutually exclusive when applied to God's being and to his activity and presence in our world and in our history. This view on the relationship between God and world is characteristic not only of deism and pantheism, but also of theism.
However, in the view of Thomas Aquinas, such an opposition cannot adequately capture the central tenets of the Christian faith. This book explores Aquinas' thought on transcendence and immanence in his discussions of creation, analogy, the Trinity, grace and Christ, and offers interpretations in which God's transcendence and his immanence do not exclude but imply one another.
University of Nottingham
Centre of Theology and Philosophy
New Programme launching in January 2010
MA in Systematic and Philosophical Theology
by distance learning
Course Director: Simon Oliver, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
Course Team: John Milbank, Conor Cunningham, Karen Kilby, Philip Goodchild, Aaron Riches, Jeff Wardle, and Tom O'Loughlin
This new programme will enable students from all over the world to engage in graduate study at one of the leading centres for research and teaching in theology and philosophy. Students will study at distance via printed and electronic media with regular contact with course tutors. Occasional visits to Nottingham for tutorial guidance are encouraged. A residential seminar and conference will be held annually in Nottingham, next between 27th and 29th April, 2010.
Further information on the programme can be found here. The applications procedure can be found here.
Also available: MA in Church History by distance learning.
For further information please contact the Course Director, Simon Oliver.
Released in April is the Radical Orthodoxy Reader, edited by John Milbank and Simon Oliver.
Book description:
The Radical Orthodoxy Reader presents a selection of key readings in the field of 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. In doing so it explores a wide and exciting range of issues: music, language, society, the body, the city, power, motion, space, time, personhood, sex and gender. As such it is both controversial and extremely stimulating; provoking much fruitful debate amongst contemporary theologians.
To assist those encountering Radical Orthodoxy for the first time, each section has an introductory commentary, related reading and helpful questions to encourage in-depth understanding and further study.
Table of Contents:
I've just received word from Chris Simpson that his new book has arrived today. It is entitled Religion, Metaphysics, and the Postmodern: William Desmond and John D. Caputo, published by Indiana University Press (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion). The publisher's description:
William Desmond's original and creative work in metaphysics is attracting more and more attention from philosophers of religion. Putting Desmond in conversation with John D. Caputo, an important philosopher of religion from the Continental tradition, Christopher Ben Simpson casts new light on Desmond's complex, multifaceted, and nuanced thought. The comparative approach allows Simpson to get at the core of recent debates in the philosophy of religion. He develops a rich understanding of how ethics and religion are informed by metaphysics, and contrasts this approach to the decidedly anti-metaphysical stance in Continental philosophy. Religion, Metaphysics, and the Postmodern presents a systematic analysis of Desmond's thought as it advances work on Caputo's thinking and on the philosophy of religion.
Available from:
Due out at the end of September is the edited conference volume entitled The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth (eds. Adrian Pabst and Angus Paddison) based on the conference proceedings of the same name held at the University of Nottingham in the summer of 2008. Click here to pre-order from SCM Press.
Details:
The publication of the book Jesus of Nazareth on 16 April 2007 was an unprecedented event: never before had a reigning Pope published personal reflections on Jesus. Benedict XVI's book engages not just with New Testament scholarship but also with fundamental methodological questions related to historical criticism.
The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth provides essays by some of the leading scholars in Britain, continental Europe and the USA to highlight the insights and limits of the Pope's reflection on Jesus. Specifically, it engages with the book from critical, cross-disciplinary and different faith perspectives.
Contributors include: John Milbank, Henri-Jérôme Gagey, Francisco Javier Martínez, Fergus Kerr OP, Richard B. Hays, Markus Bockmuehl, Adele Reinhartz, Mona Siddiqui, Peter Casarella, R. W. L. Moberly, Olivier-Thomas Venard OP, Richard Bell, Angus Paddison, Roland Deines, and George Dennis O'Brien.
Endorsements:
"This book is an important response, sympathetic but not uncritical, to Pope Benedict's appeal to trust the evangelists' portrayal of Jesus. Whether or not Benedict's argument is successful, the problem he addresses - the modern divide between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith - is a real one. Contributors to this volume rightly recognize this, and show how the debate can be taken forward." — Francis Watson, Chair of Biblical Interpretation, University of Durham
"Pope Benedict hoped that his book Jesus of Nazareth would provoke an intelligent debate about what it means to be disciples of Jesus today. This book's collection of articles, some of exceptional distinction, more than fulfils that hope. Many of them bring fresh light to bear on one of the most important questions which theology faces today, the relationship between modern biblical scholarship and faith in the Risen Lord. Wonderful!" — Timothy Radcliffe OP, Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992-2001
"This is an exciting collection of essays written by an outstanding group of international biblical scholars and systematic theologians. They creatively and resourcefully interact with Pope Benedict XVI's book, Jesus of Nazareth, allowing the reader to obtain greater insight into and appreciation of Pope Benedict's thought. Moreover, through their dialogue with Pope Benedict's work, these authors also make their own individual outstanding scholarly contributions to the study of Christ." — Thomas G. Weinandy, O.F.M., Cap., Executive Director for the Secretariat for Doctrine, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC
"A rich and articulate inquiry into the Pope's thought and his reflections on Jesus. This book takes up Benedict XVI's invitation to overcome the unwarranted dualism between reason and Revelation, between the Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith, and to rediscover the essence of the Christian event - God made man - the inexhaustible spring of an adequate theological and exegetical method. Those essays on the Holy Father's hermeneutical perspective which are critical also help the deepening of knowledge." — H.E. Angelo Cardinal Scola, Patriarch of Venice
The Veritas series page has been updated to reflect the addition of three new works.
The first is for a volume just-released: J. P. Moreland's The Recalcitrant Imago Dei: Human Persons and the Failure of Naturalism.
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Endorsements:
"J. P. Moreland's new book is a tour de force. In six clear, concise and tightly-argued chapters, he raises profound objections to the attempts of modern naturalistic philosophers to accommodate human consciousness, free will, rationality, selfhood and morality within a purely physical world-view. He thereby significantly enhances the intellectual appeal of a theistic alternative. All open-minded metaphysicians, philosophers of mind and philosophical theologians should read this book." — E. J. Lowe, Professor of Philosophy, Durham University
"J.P. Moreland's book is a masterpiece of clear, compelling, accessible arguments against naturalism, and a powerful defense of a Christian understanding of persons. This should be required reading for anyone interested in the philosophy of human nature and the debate between theism and naturalism today." — Charles Taliaferro, St Olaf Collage
"The Recalcitrant Imago Dei is a wonderful read. Chapter by chapter, Moreland systematically sets forth how naturalism denies what is so obvious about ourselves, which is that we are conscious, rational souls that have the power to make undetermined choices for purposes. The power of the book lies in the way that it makes clear how human beings become unrecognizable once naturalism has worked them over. Through page after page of careful argument, Moreland shows all of us how deeply unnatural the naturalist account of ourselves is." — Stewart Goetz, St Ursinus College
"Materialistic naturalism has, for some years, been the received wisdom in philosophy, as well as amongst much of the educated public. Many serious philosophical arguments have been brought against this ideology, but usually in a series of separate controversies. J.P. Moreland's great service is to bring all these objections together, whilst adding his own original contributions, in a very effective anti-naturalist polemic. He shows us that the materialist world picture cannot accommodate the most basic phenomena of human life: It has no place for consciousness, free will, rationality, the human subject or any kind of intrinsic value. Materialism does not disprove these human realities, it is simply incapable of accounting for them in any remotely plausible way. I would add to the list of its failures that naturalism lacks even a coherent account of the physical world itself. Moreland makes a very good case for saying that, as a serious world view, naturalism is a non-starter: more traditional, theistic philosophies fare much better in the face both of the phenomena and of argument." — Howard Robinson, University Professor in Philosophy, Central European University, Budapest
The next two are for this year's forthcoming edited conference volumes:
The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth, edited by Angus Paddison and Adrian Pabst; and The Grandeur of Reason: Religion, Tradition, and Universalism, edited by Peter M. Candler Jr. and Conor Cunningham. Further information on these volumes is forthcoming.
Whilst this programme aired on 31 March 2009, this 1-hour documentary can now be watched here using the BBC iPlayer.
A new trailer for the documentary can be accessed here (2 min 16 sec).
The BBC's Darwin Season: marking the life and work of Charles Darwin - highlights:
BBC Two
As many of you may be aware, the BBC has launched a 'Darwin Season' on both radio and television to commemorate the double anniversary that falls this year for Charles Darwin: 200 years since his birth and 150 years since the publication of his groundbreaking book-The Origin of Species. The received view of evolution's relation with religion is that the former undermines the latter. Philosopher and theologian Conor Cunningham from the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, University of Nottingham, says this is simply nonsense.
Cunningham who has just completed a new book-Evolution: Darwin's Pious Idea, which will be published in the autumn, was approached by the BBC and asked to write and present a one hour documentary exploring Darwinism's apparent impact on Christianity. According to Conor, the cultural war between religion and evolution, most vocally represented by American creationists and scientists such as Richard Dawkins is completely unnecessary and more than that, it is damaging for both religion and science. In his documentary - Did Darwin Kill God? - Conor travels around England, America and Israel interviewing philosophers, Bible scholars and scientists in a bid to discover how this destructive conflict arose, and in the process concluding that it is based on bad science, inaccurate history, inadequate philosophy and even worse theology.
The main purpose of the documentary is to offer a critique of both Christian fundamentalists who reject evolution, doing so, Conor argues, because they display a complete lack of understanding about the Christian tradition, and Darwinian fundamentalists - those such as Dawkins who take Darwin's theory beyond the domain of science and apply it to all aspects of life, and is so doing undermine the very cogency of evolution as a science. Consequently, Darwinists such as Dawkins are as great a threat to evolution as are creationists. In addition Conor seeks to remind viewers of the orthodox understanding of Christianity's God, for it is this understanding that makes opposition between Darwin's theory of evolution and Christianity not only misplaced but impossible.
Also, the University of Nottingham podcast website has added an interview with Conor Cunningham: A plague on both houses (mp3 Friday 13 March 2009; 32.1MB, 34.41mins).
SCM Press and The Centre of Theology and Philosophy invite you to a
Book Launch and Seminar
Monday, 16 March 2009
4 pm - 7 pm
University of Nottingham Staff Club Lounge
The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology
John Milbank, Professor in Religion, Politics and Ethics and Director of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, will talk about his new book.
The Theology of Food: Eating and the Eucharist, by Angel F. Méndez Montoya, published in the Illuminations series.
The links between religion and food have been known for centuries, and yet we rarely examine or understand the nature of the relationship between food and spirituality, or food and sin. Drawing on literature, politics, and philosophy as well as theology, this book unlocks the role food has played, and shows religion in a new and illuminating light.
A fascinating book tracing the centuries-old links between theology and food, showing religion in a new and intriguing light
Draws on examples from different religions: the significance of the apple in the Christian Bible and the eating of bread as the body of Christ; the eating and fasting around Ramadan for Muslims; and how the dietary laws of Judaism are designed to create an awareness of living in the time and space of the Torah
Explores ideas from the fields of literature, politics, and philosophy, as well as theology
Takes seriously the idea that food matters, and that the many aspects of eating - table fellowship, culinary traditions, the aesthetic, ethical and political dimensions of food - are important and complex, and throw light on both religion and our relationship to food
Read the first chapter online here.
The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology: "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. Many of the essays first appeared in obscure places and are thus not widely known. Also included are Milbank's most important responses to critiques of his seminal work, Theology and Social Theory. Taken together, the collection amounts to a "political theology" arrived at from diverse angles. This work is essential reading for all concerned with the current situation of religion in the era of globalization and with the future development of Radical Orthodoxy."
Endorsements: (click on the names below to see the endorsement)
"The risk he takes, the range of problems he engages, the imaginative power of his mind, the sheer energy that pulses through these essays make this book essential for anyone who would understand the phenomenon—the gift—that bears the name John Milbank."
"This is a marvellous collection of well-organized essays by perhaps the most thought-provoking theologian of the moment. They display an impressive range, are full of surprises, and are elegantly and engagingly written. They will confirm John Milbank's reputation as one of the most accomplished and singular of theologians currently writing."
"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."
Table of Contents: click here
Publication date: 01 January 2009
Order here: Cascade Books
The Legend of Death: Two Poetic Sequences: "The Earth's thin crust of organic matter and the still thinner crust of the spirit is the most concentrated, the most suggestive part of the cosmos. It in every way exceeds itself by pointing above its horizontal surface towards vertical transcendence. However, it can never leave itself behind and always carries itself with itself in every ascent. Poetry attends to the resultant human diagonal."
&mdashfrom the preface to the first sequence, "On the Diagonal: Metaphysical Landscapes"
Endorsements: (click on the names below to see the endorsement)
"That John Milbank is an original and powerful theologian is well known. That he is a poet of lyrical and epic sensitivities will now become well known. Here we find piercing lyrics such as 'Ode to Night,' 'Winter Interior,' and 'Cosmos.' Here we find American and British landscapes, alive with history and nature: squirrels in 'sculpted motion' and a day 'brushed with lemon.' And here too we find the ambitious long sequence, 'The Legend of Death,' which, with its concatenation of story, creed, and place, is itself a theological work, one that could only be written as a poem."
"This is a poetry of narrative intensity and lyric delicacy. Its sheer range and depth calls to mind 'The Anathemata' of David Jones."
"John Milbank's new book of poetry offers us a greatly extended and ambitious structure, concerned with humanity's largest concepts across history and ideology as witnessed at their particular localites, as it were their homes in the landscape. I'm particularly glad that he has in this new venture maintained his sense of poetry as the proper vehicle of such vision, without letting it inflate. The poetry's theses are discovered constantly anew with registers of surprise and wonder which amount to an interlocked modesty. So the discoveries are transmitted to us as an authentically poetical account which never deserts the particular, personal, and questing experience, the eyes on the landscape, the words held in their places by the rhythmic tension of constant realisation and renewal. It is a work of genuine illumination."
Table of Contents: click here
Publication date: 04 September 2009
Order here: Cascade Books
The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic? is a conversation between John Milbank and Slavoj Žižek (edited by Creston Davis) that "concerns 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." [description is from the MIT Press site] This book is slated for April 2009.
John Milbank and Adrian Pabst are speaking at the TELOS annual conference on 17th Jan. 2009 in New York. From the conference poster: "This conference will consider both the new administration in Washington, and political shifts abroad, viewed in light of TELOS's long-standing concern with "administered society," expansive bureaucracies, and the role of the 'new class.'" For more information, click here to download the event poster. You may also download the conference agenda here.
A year-long seminar on Conor Cunningham's Genealogy of Nihilism: Philosophies of Nothing and the Difference of Theology at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa - Faculdade de Filosofia:
"Objectivo do Seminário é propocionar um contexto para a investigação filosofica sobre a natureza das asserções referentes a alguns does principais aspectos do teí smo cristão. Entre outras, colocam-se as seguintes questões: Em que medida são essas crenças racionalmente justifcadas? Quais os factores que entram na constituição discursiva de uma argumentação que tenha a pretensão de ser racional e religiosa?
"Colocando-se no contexto de uma procura de elementos que possam ser úteis para uma «Gramática do Assentimento», este Seminário tem em vista recuperar para os nossos tempos aquilo que o Cardeal John Henry Newman corajosamente tentou fazer no sé culo XIX numa obra com precisamente aquele tí tulo. Conscientes de que os interesses de Newman eram primariamente apologéticos, o Seminario propoe-se, pelo menos na sua fase inicial, fazer um percurso mais exploratorio do que definitivo. Ao longo do presente ano de 2008-2009 será examinado o livro Genealogy of Nihilism de Conor Cunningham."
Previous books discussed:
- Paulo de Tarso: Carta aos Romanos
- Agostinho de Hipona: A Cidade de Deus
- Karl Barth: A Carta aos Romanos
- Paul Ricoeur: L'Homme Fallible
- Maurice Blondel: L'Action (1893)
- Henri de Lubac: Le Surnaturel
- Alvin Plantinga: Warranted Christian Belief
- William Alston: Perceiving God
- Alasdair MacIntyre: Three Versions of Moral Inquiry
- John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock: Truth in Aquinas
- John Henry Newman: An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent
À quoi servent les images ? Peuvent-elles nous faire accé der à l'essentiel ?
Olivier Boulnois, Au-delà de l'image, Une archéologie du visuel au Moyen Age, Ve-XVIe siè cle, Des Travaux/ Seuil, Paris, 2008, 496 p., + 8p. d'illustrations.
Cliquez ici pour voir la couverture du livre.
[Click each book for more info]
Phenomenology and Mysticism: The Verticality of Religious Experience (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion) Publication date: 1 Nov 2007 Click here for a larger image of the cover. |  |
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Seminar Programme: Semester 2, 2006-07
Please see the Seminar Schedule for this term. All are welcome!
Eerdmans Publishing and the Centre of Theology and Philosophy (Nottingham) are pleased to announce the formation of a new series entitled INTERVENTIONS, edited by Dr. Conor Cunningham and Dr. Peter Candler. The Advisory Board is represented by Rowan Williams, Charles Taylor, William Desmond, Mark D. Jordan, Peter van Inwagen, Remi Brague, Sarah Coakley, and Jean-Yves Lacoste.
Click here to see the volumes in the series.
Those interested in contributing to this series, please email all proposals to and .
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The discussion forum and news sections have officially been launched! We hope to provide up-to-date posts on the Centre's events and activities as well as topics for discussion that are interesting and engaging. We would love to hear from you in the forum, so feel free to leave a comment or ask a question in regards to the topics posted or about the Centre in general. Regards, Eric Lee |  |
(Sculpture by Sara Cunningham-Bell)
