Philosophy of Religion Religious Studies Theology

John the Possibilizer: The Promise of a Kearnian Baptismal Hermeneutic, Part I (Eric Trozzo)

The following is the first installment of a two-part series. The wild hair, the scratchy clothing, the grit and body odor, and the exotic diet. All of these images typically come to mind when one mentions John the Baptist. He is a cartoonishly fiery, angry (and a wee bit insane) prophet railing against the system […]

Mythology Philosophy of Religion Psychoanalysis Psychology of Religion Uncategorized

The Mythology of Afterlife Beliefs and Their Impact on Religious Conflict, Part 2 (Brigid Burke)

The following is the second installment of a two-part series. The first installment can be found here. Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is believed to be an outgrowth of an Indo-Iranian religious tradition that dates to the 2nd millennium BCE. However, we do not see it mentioned in Greek writings until about the middle of the 5th century […]

Mythology Philosophy of Religion Psychoanalysis Psychology of Religion

The Mythology of Afterlife Beliefs and Their Impact on Religious Conflict, Part 1 (Brigid Burke)

The following is the first installment of a two-part series. I. Introduction The question of whether there is life after death, and what that life might be like, is probably one of religion’s oldest questions. Indeed, some conception or another has been in play since the beginning of recorded history, and probably before. Our modern […]

Philosophy Philosophy of Religion

Untimely Meditations on Techno-Theology and Theo-Poetics, Part 1 (John Panteleimon Manoussakis)

The following is the first half of the article.  The second installment can be found here. Philosophical Propaedeutics Philosophy’s very first utterance, according to Aristotle,[1] present us with two seemingly incompatible positions: the unity of all, as posited by one causative principle (archē) to which Thales, lacking a better term, calls water, and the multiplicity of all, infested […]

Philosophy of Religion

Spinoza’s Theory of Religion – Stabilized Superstition (Ehud Benor)

The best interpretations of Spinoza’s philosophy would lead us to believe that, for Spinoza, religion is superstition. Henry Allison’s account is an excellent example.1 As he proceeds to discuss Spinoza’s views concerning revelation, scripture and religion, the subject matter of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Allison writes: Spinoza’s general attitude to the claims of revealed religion is already […]

Philosophy of Religion

Love Strong as Death – Jews against Heidegger, On the Issue of Finitude – Part 2 (Agata Bielik-Robson)

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, […]

Philosophy of Religion

Love Strong as Death – Jews against Heidegger, On the Issue of Finitude – Part 1 (Agata Bielik-Robson)

This article is published in two parts.  The second portion will appear on August 1. I have set before you life and death: choose life. – Deuteronomy 30:19 Finitude is not the being-finished-off of an existent […] butting up against and stumbling over its own limit (its contingency, error, imperfection, or fault). Finitude is not […]

Critical Theory Philosophy of Religion

Jesus’ Ghost – Derrida, Christianity, and “Hauntology” – Part 1

Jesus, who was concerned till manhood with his own personal development, was free from the contagious sickness of his age and his people; free from the inhibited inertia which expends its one activity on the common needs and conveniences of life; free too from the ambition and other desires whose satisfaction, once craved, would have […]