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The Image of God and Our Vocation of the Soil, Part 2 (Mick Pope)
The article is published in two installments. The first can be found here. It is generally recognised that the Garden story is more environmentally friendly
George Batailles On Ethnographic Surrealism And “The Limits Of The Useful” – Review Essay (Matt Waggoner)
Georges Bataille, The Limit of the Useful. Translated and edited by Corey Austin Knudson and Tomas Elliott. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2022. Hardback. 360 pages
Philosophy As Love – Unblocking The Road From Athens To Jerusalem, Part 2 (Erik Meganck)
The following is the second of a three part-series. The first can be found here. Love is not the opposite of planning; openness is not the opposite of
Religious Studies As The “State Religion” Of Neoliberalism, Part 1 (Carl Raschke)
> “Neptunus alii per alia, poterunt intellegi qui qualesque sint, quoque eos nomine consuetudo nuncupaverit, hoc eos et venerari et colere debemus.” – Cicero
From Holistic To In-Between Theology – The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, Part 2 (Rode Molla)
The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here. Tumsa, as a theologian, focused on social justice and the hermeneutical
The Unbroken Middle: Overcoming The Empty Sacrifices Of Modernity With Gillian Rose And Paul, Part 1 (Michael C. Raubach)
In her 1992 masterpiece, The Broken Middle, the philosopher Gillian Rose explored what she saw as a baleful crisis of ethics in modern political discourse
Truth And Irony – Beyond Binary Patterns In Theological Reasoning, Part 2 (Florian Klug)
The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here. It will appear as a full article in the Fall 2021 issue of the Journal for
The Religious Significance Of Miracles – Why Hume’s Critique Is Superfluous, Part 2 (Alberto Urquidez)
The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here. The question I shall now consider is this: If not all miracles are religious
Review -- What is Real? (Filippo Pietrogrande)
Giorgio Agamben. What is Real? Trans. Lorenzo Chiesa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018. 88 pages. ISBN: 978-1-5036-0737-8
Review – Genealogies Of Mahayana Buddhism (Ananda Abeysekara)
Joseph Walser, Genealogies of Mahāyāna Buddhism: Emptiness, Power, and the Question of Origin. Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2018. 288 pages. IBSN:...
The Irreducible (Jean-Luc Marion)
Of that which we cannot speak, must we remain silent? Probably—especially if we understand why we cannot say anything about it, and have good reason for not
The “New Hegel” And The Question Of God, Part 2 (Gavin Hyman)
The following is the second installment of a three-part series. The first one can be found here. Slavoj Žižek’s return to God in the context of his wider return
Review – The Intimate Universal (Stephen Bujno)
*William Desmond, The Intimate Universal: The Hidden Porosity Among Religion, Art, Philosophy, and Politics. Columbia University Press, 2016. 520 pages
Review – The Enigmatic Absolute (Stanimir Panayotov)
*Joshua Ramey and Matthew S. Haar Farris (Eds.), Speculation, Heresy, and Gnosis in Contemporary Philosophy of Religion: The Enigmatic Absolute 299 pages.
Review – Decolonizing Dialectics (Josiah Solis)
*Ciccariello-Maher, George. Decolonizing Dialectics. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2017. 256 pages. ISBN-10: 0822362430 ISBN-10: 0822362430. It highlights
Inventing Afterlives – Review (Camille Grace Leon Angelo)
Janes, Regina M. Inventing Afterlives: The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Life After Death. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2018. 384 pages 384 pages.
Transmodern Sufism, Or Stepping With Levinas On The Footprints Of A Speculative Sufism Not Re-Framed By 20th Century Orientalists, Part 2 (Philipp Valentini)
The following is the second installment of a three-part series. The first can be found here. A non-Paulinian theology understands the Law not as a whole but as
Transmodern Sufism, Or Stepping With Levinas On The Footprints Of A Speculative Sufism Not Re-Framed By 20th Century Orientalists, Part 1 (Philipp Valentini)
> I am wondering if the agony of years > Could be traced to the seed of an hour > If the roots that spread out in the swamp > Ran too deep for the issuing
Review – Neurotheological Nuances (Joshua Canzona)
Neurotheology: How Science Can Enlighten Us About Spirituality. Newberg, Andrew. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018. ISBN 9780231179041. Hardback
Review – Medicinal Religion (Aaron Klink)
*Balboni, Michael J. and Peteet, John R. eds. Spirituality and Religion Within the Culture of Medicine: From Evidence to Practice ISBN 9780190272432 Hardcover.
Beyond Religious Ideas – The Legacy Of Max Weber In Critical Theory And Critical Religion (Joel Harrison)
This article was initially published in The New Polis, March 23, 2018. In his essay “The Failure of Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion,” Donald Wiebe
Mischief, Idolatry, And The Demonic – Toward A Hermeneutic Of Play, Part II (Kevin Lewis)
The following is the second part in a two-part installment. The first part can be found here. We proceed first by a reminder of Scripture itself (which makes no
Mischief, Idolatry, And The Demonic – Toward A Hermeneutic Of Play, Part I (Kevin Lewis)
Biblical hermeneutics, studied reflection upon interpretation of scriptural passages, has not remained static in method or approach over the centuries
Secularism And Its Discontents – On Charting Pathways With A Phenomenology Of Religion, Part 1 (Ludger Hagerdorn and Michael Staudigl)
*The following is the introductory article for the Spring 2018 issue (Vol. 17, No. 2) of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory It highlights key
Review – The Ethics Of Time (Matthew Clemente)
The Ethics of Time. Manoussakis, John. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2017. ISBN: 9781474299169. Hardback. 232 pages. John Manoussakis’s latest book, The Ethics of
Review – Reverent Irreverence (Amit Gvaryahu)
**Pious Irreverence: Confronting God in Rabbinic Judaism. Weiss, Dov. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017. ISBN 9780812293050 Hardcover, ebook.
Review – An Uncritical Critique of Theism (Rebekah Gordon)
Religion Within Reason. Cahn, Steven M. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780231181617. Paperback. 93 pages.** It is amazing that a book of less
![Prayer After the Death of God, Part II (Ashley [Gay] Graham)](https://files.jcrt.org/images/2018/02/img_0502.webp)
Prayer After the Death of God, Part II (Ashley [Gay] Graham)
The following is the second part in a two-part installment. The first part can be found here. This abandonment is not a permanent void; rather, it demonstrates
Review – Three Agambens on Display (S.J. Cowan)
Agamben’s Philosophical Lineage. Edited by Adam Kotsko and Carlo Salzani. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017. ISBN-10: 1474423647 ISBN-10: 1474423647.
Review – Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil: Negative Reactions to the Jewish Pre- and Post-Holocaust (Madison Tarleton)
Antisemitism Before and Since the Holocaust: Altered Contexts and Recent Perspectives. Basingstoke United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 It highlights
Review – French Perceptions of Muslim Sexuality (Trevor Wolff)
Mack, Mehammed Amadeus. Sexagon: Muslims, France, and the Sexualization of National Culture. New York City NY: Fordham University Press, 2017 It highlights
Review – Power After Biopower, Or The Colonizing Of Perception (Adam Loch)
*Massumi, Brian. Ontopower: War, Powers, and the State of Perception. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2015. Hardcover, Paperback, E-book, ix + 320 pages.* A
Review – Indebted to Asceticism (Hollis Phelps)
Stimilli, Elettra. **The Debt of the Living: Ascesis and Capitalism. Translated by Arianna Bove. Albany: SUNY Press, 2017. ISBN 9781438464152 It highlights
Review – Reframing Schelling (Rolando Rodriguez)
Daniel Whistler, **Schelling’s Theory of Symbolic Language: Forming the System of Identity (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013), 261 ppgs + xi**
The Mythology of Afterlife Beliefs and Their Impact on Religious Conflict, Part 1 (Brigid Burke)
The question of whether there is life after death, and what that life might be like, is probably one of religion’s oldest questions It highlights key arguments
Review—Whither Philosophy of Religion? (Benjamin Steele-Fisher)
**Religion and European Philosophy: Key Thinkers from Kant to Zizek. Edited by Philip Goodchild and Hollis Phelps. New York: Routledge, 2017 It highlights
Review – The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America (Rebekah Gordon)
*Fitzgerald, Francis. The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America. New York City, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017. ISBN-10: 1439131333. Hardcover
Review – The Contemplative Self after Michel Henry (Michael Saunders)
*Rivera, Joseph. The Contemplative Self After Michel Henry: A Phenomenological Theology. Notre Dame: Notre Dame Press, 2015. ISBN-10: 0268040605. 408 pages
Review – Mysticism As Language Game (Adam Loch)
*Tugendhat, Ernst. Egocentricity and Mysticism: An Anthropological Study. Translated by Alexei Procyshyn and Mario Wenning ISBN-10: 0231169124. It highlights
Review – Bahai Religion And Religious Cycles (Rebekah Gordon)
Sergeev, Mikhail. Theory of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity, and the Baha’i Faith. Amsterdam: Brill Rodopi, 2015. ISBN-10:9004300031. Paperback
Review – Ontic Flows: From Digital Humanities to Posthumanities (Dean Dettloff)
*Bernico, Matt, and Kölke, Manuela (Eds.). Ontic Flows: From Digital Humanities to Posthumanities. New York: Atropos Press, 2016. ISBN-10: 1940813085 It
Review – Economy And Ontology From Agamben To Nancy (Taylor Weaver)
*Bird, Greg. Containing Community: From Political Economy to Ontology in Agamben, Esposito, and Nancy. Albany NY: SUNY Press, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4384-6185-4
Review – Caputo’s “Spooky” Call To Theology (Rob Kennedy)
*Caputo, John D., Moody, Sarah, and DeLay, Tad., It Spooks: Living In Response To An Unheard Call. Rapid City SD: Shelter50 Publishing Collective, 2015
Review – The Origins of Neoliberalism: A Racialized Review (Adam F. Braun)
*Leshem, Dotan. The Origins of Neoliberalism: Modeling the Economy from Jesus to Foucault. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. ISBN-10: 0231177763
Forging A Path From Theory To Theology – Review Essay (Matt Waggoner)
*Blanton, Ward. Crockett, Clayton. Robbins, Jeffrey. Vahanian, Noëlle. An Insurrectionist Manifesto: Four New Gospels for a Radical Politics (Insurrections:
Review – A Stranger Thought For Stranger Times (Liam Burrell)
*Smith, Anthony Paul. Laruelle: A Stranger Thought. Cambridge: Polity, 2016. ISBN-10: 0745671233. Hardcover, paperback, e-book Hardcover, paperback, e-book.
Untimely Meditations on Techno-Theology and Theo-Poetics, Part 2 (John Panteleimon Manoussakis)
**The following is the second half of the article. The first installment can be found here.** Richard Kearney’s theopoetics offers an alternative to the
Review – The Metaphysics of Copresence in Beliso-De Jesùs’ Electric Santeria (Ryne Beddard)
* Beliso-De Jesús, Aisha M. Electric Santería: Racial and Sexual Assemblages of Transnational Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015 It highlights
Philosophical Anthropology or Philosophy of Praxis? Axel Honneth and Andrew Feenberg on Lukács’ Theory of Reification (Konstantinos Kavoulakos)
Axel Honneth’s Reification. A New Look at an Old Idea (2008) and Andrew Feenberg’s Philosophy of Praxis (2014) represent two recent publications, which give a
Foucault’s Disciplinary Society And The Community Rule Of Qumran (Rebekah Gordon)
In his 1975 work Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault uses the lens of prison and society to examine the ways in which power structures act upon the
Review – Theologies of the Boss (James Cochran)
*Yadin-Israel, Azzan. The Grace of God and the Grace of Man: The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen. Highland Park: Lingua Press, 2016. ISBN-10: 0692718516
Review – Neoliberalsm Is Nowhere – Wendy Brown’s Undoing the Demos (Isaiah Dylan Ellis)
* Brown, Wendy. Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. New York: Zone Books, 2015. ISBN-10: 1935408534. Hardcover Hardcover. It highlights
Review – Badiou Is Not Afraid of The Dark (Mason Davis)
*Badiou, Alain. Black: The Brilliance of a Non-Color. Translated by Susan Spitzer. New Jersey: Polity, 2016. ISBN-10: 1509512071. Hardcover, paperback, e-book
Newest Titles For Review – Freud, Nussbaum, Angst, The Crucified God, Etc.
Religious Theory has just added new titles for which we are looking for reviewers (listed below). If you would like to review one of them, please send an email
Review – Judith Butler And The Different “Senses” Of The Subject (Matthew Waggoner)
Note: This review is also published simultaneously in the PDF special issue of JCRT 16.1. *Butler, Judith. Senses of the Subject Senses of the Subject.
Rethinking Anselm’s Atonement Theory – “Unmaking” The Indebted Man (Ryne Beddard)
Throughout Church history Christians have used various images and illustrations to explain why God became a human and died, and why these actions have been
Review – New Trends In The Theory And Methods For Studying Religion (David Kim)
Kovács, Ábrahám, and James L. Cox, Editors. New Trends and Recurring Issues in the Study of Religion: Context and Overview. Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2014
The Semiotics of the Unconscious in Gilles Deleuze and Roland Barthes, Part 2 (Roger Green)
The following is the second of a two-part series. The first installment, published on Dec. 19, 2016, can be found here. In Writing Degree Zero, Barthes suggests
The Semiotics of the Unconscious in Gilles Deleuze and Roland Barthes, Part 1 (Roger Green)
In his preface to Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus, Michel Foucault asks the authors’ forgiveness for describing their book as the first book of ethics
Review – The Greatest Trick God Ever Pulled… (Benjamin Steele-Fisher)
*Kotsko, Adam. The Prince of this World. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017. ISBN-10: 1503600203. Hardcover, paperback, e-book It highlights key
Time Emptied And Time Renewed – The Dominion Of Capital And A Theo-Politics Of Contretemps, Part 1 (Daniel Rhodes)
In his long-awaited interjection into the debates on the future of Marxism after the collapse of Soviet state communism, Jacques Derrida introduces the notion
Review – François Laruelle’s General Theory of Victims (John Matthew Allison)
*Laruelle, François. General Theory of Victims. Translated by Jessie Hock and Alex Dubilet. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2015. ISBN-10: 0745679617 It highlights
Review – Eugene Thacker’s “Cosmic Pessimism” (N.N. Trakakis)
*Thacker, Eugene. Cosmic Pessimism. Minneapolis: Univocal Publishing, 2015. ISBN-10: 193756147X. E-book, paperback. 55 pages.* It might be worth quoting from
Review – Caputo, The Unconditional, The Folly of God (Richard M. Allen)
*Caputo, John D. The Folly of God: A Theology of the Unconditional. Salem, OR: Polebridge Press, 2016. ISBN-10: 1598151711. Paperback, e-book Paperback, e-book.
Collective Desire and the Pathology of the Individual, Part 1 (Jodi Dean)
An interesting strand of contemporary theory designates the specificity of capitalism with the qualifier “cognitive.” I do not write under this term, although I
Review – Whence and Whither Posthumanism? (Bo Eberle)
*White, Ryan. The Hidden God: Pragmatism and Posthumanism in American Thought. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. ISBN-10: 0231171005 Hardcover, e-book.
Review – Raising the Vegetal Question (Hollis Phelps)
*Irigaray, Luce and Michael Marder, Through Vegetal Being: Two Philosophical Perspectives. New York, Columbia University Press, 2016 It highlights key
Review – Aaron Hughes’ ‘Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity’ (Daniel Tutt)
*Hughes, Aaron. Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity: An Inquiry into Disciplinary Apologetics and Self-Deception. London: Equinox Publishing, 2016 It
Review – Of Politics and Motion (Joshua Lawrence)
* Nail, Thomas. The Figure of the Migrant. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015. ISBN-10: 0804796580. 312 pages.* If the 21st century is indeed the century
Review – L.L. Welborn’s Synthesis of New Testament Scholarship and Critical Theory’s Recent Interest in the Apostle Paul (Benjamin Steele-Fisher)
*Welborn, Larry L. Paul’s Summons to Messianic Life: Political Theology and the Coming Awakening (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and
Review – Love’s Unfortunate Presence between Faith and Belief (Daniel Boscaljon)
*Schrijvers, Joeri. Between Faith and Belief: Toward a Contemporary Phenomenology of Religious Life (SUNY Series in Theology and Continental Thought) It
Review – Giorgio Agamben and the Theory of Civil War (Ignas Kalpokas)
*Agamben, Giorgio. Stasis: Civil War as a Political Paradigm (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics). Translated by Nicholas Heron Translated by Nicholas Heron.
Review – A Darker, Grittier Deleuze (Timothy Snediker)
*Culp, Andrew. Dark Deleuze (Forerunners: Ideas First). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016. ISBN 10: 1517901332 Paperback, e-book It highlights
Review – Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America (Roger Green)
* Osto, Douglas. Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016 It highlights key arguments
Review – Agamben’s Political Reading of the Trial of Jesus (Ryne Beddard)
*Agamben, Giorgio. Pilate and Jesus (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics). Translated by Adam Kotsko. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015 It highlights
What Is A Dispositif? – Part 2 (Gregg Lambert)
The following article by internationally known theory scholar Gregg Lambert is the second of a two-part series. The first part was published on July 11, 2016
Review – The Search For Transcendence In The “Material Phenomenology” of David Foster Wallace (Jeff Appel)
*Miller, Adam S. The Gospel According to David Foster Wallace: Boredom and Addiction in an Age of Distraction. New York: Bloomsburg Academic, 2016 It highlights
Review – The Evolution of the Religious Factor in Fantasy Role-Playing Games (Jeffrey Scholes)
*Laycock, Joseph P. Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds ISBN-10: 0520284925. It
Review – Badiou’s Conversations About Theatre Offer Light-Hearted And Quirky Insight Into Mind Of Philosopher (Ryne Beddard)
*Badiou, Alain (with Nicolas Truong). In Praise of Theatre. New York: Polity, 2015. ISBN 10: 978-0-7456-8697-4. Hardback, paperback, e-book It highlights
Review – Donovan Schaefer’s Call For a Materialist Turn In Religious Theory (Jonathan Russell)
*Schaefer, Donovan O. Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2015. ISBN 10: 978-0-8223-5982-1, 10: It highlights
Review – Badiou and Gauchet on Capitalism and Democracy
*Badiou, Alain and Gauchet, Marcel. What Is To Be Done?: A Dialogue on Communism, Capitalism, and the Future of Democracy. Translated by Susan Spitzer
Review – Carl Raschke’s Force of God Hammers Out A Political Theology Of Insurrection/Resurrection For Our Times
Raschke, Carl. Force of God: Political Theology and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. ISBN-978-0231-17384-1 It
Review – Jean-Pierre Couture Brings To Life The Ongoing Oeuvre of Peter Sloterdijk
*Couture, Jean-Pierre. Sloterdijk (Key Contemporary Thinkers). Boston: Polity, 2015. 208 pages. ISBN-10: 0745663818. Hardback, paperback, e-book, 208 pages
Renegade Hinduism Scholar Featured In Norton’s Anthology of World Religions
The just-released, multi-volume Norton Anthology of World Religions is a major project of substance undertaken by a group of world-renowned scholars in
Review Essay – Peter Sloterdijk on Social Bonds, Freedom, and Religion
The English reception of Peter Sloterdijk has been ambivalent at best, relying largely on hearsay from European interlocutors (Žižek especially) or gossip about