E-SUPPLEMENT TO THE JOURNAL FOR CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS THEORY
The following is the first of a two-part series. The entire article appears in Issue 22.1 of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory. Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus is a book in which the author’s mature ideas about the epistemological capacities of the human being are used to propose a configuration of political roles, religious power, and general […]
The following is the last of a four-part series. The first can be found here, the second here, the third here. Is what Martel presents his readers only a pragmatic approach which demonstrates the utilitarian value of religion? Is religion “false” but nevertheless worth adopting because it provides a better (story) way of life?[1] Is God just another […]
The following is the first of a four-part series. Introduction* Yann Martel’s 2001 bestselling novel Life of Pi, later released in 2012 as a prize-winning box office hit, addresses themes such as religion, faith, imagination, and their relation to psychology and human life; hope and despair; and the struggle with human nature. The author promises […]
The following is the first of a two-part installment. This article can also be downloaded in PDF format from the Spring 2019 issue (Vol. 18, No. 2) of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory. Claustrophobia at the Christian Table This essay is in the broadest sense a reflection on the possibilities (or impossibilities) of […]
At the outset of Genesis, we are presented with two different pictures of God. The first depicts God as the creator of the world and, thus, as transcendent to it. This implies that we cannot understand his creative action in worldly terms. If, for example, we say that “in the beginning” God caused the world […]
Pious Irreverence: Confronting God in Rabbinic Judaism. Weiss, Dov. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017. ISBN 9780812293050. Hardcover, ebook. ix+291 pages. Pious Irreverence opens with a quote from America’s favorite fictional president, Josiah Bartlet of The West Wing. After the funeral of his friend and personal secretary, Dolores Landingham, Bartlet asks for some time alone […]
The following is the second of a two-part series. The first segment was published on July 25, 2016 and can be accessed here. Another Finitude – Rosenzweig versus Heidegger Thus, even if not completely in accord with Heidegger” “letter,” Blanchot’s deconstructive reading allows to see the shadow thrown by his thanatic ‘spirit”: in Derrida’s words, […]