Gender Studies

Body Erotic – John Boswell’s History Of Eurochristian Sexuality And The Case For Transcendental Somatics, Part 2 (Kieryn Wurts)

The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here. Social constructionist theory developed as an answer to essentialist theories of sexuality and sought to demonstrate the variety and complexity of approaches to sex, reproduction, love gender, and marriage have been throughout human history. Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality series […]

Phenomenology

If You Have To Explain It, It Isn’t Funny – Laughing Immediately With Merleau-Ponty, Part 1 (Adam Blair)

This is the first section in a two-part series. The three predominant theories of humor within the Western canon — relief, incongruity, and superiority— reveal something about why we laugh when we do. There is a central insight to each of the three theories, regarding the psychological, conceptual, and social forces at play in our experience of […]

Psychoanalysis Psychology of Religion

Lacan As “Spiritual Director” – On The Relationship Between Psychoanalysis And Christian Mysticism, Part 3 (Mark Murphy)

The following is the third installment of a three-part series.  The first can be found here.  The second one can be found here. The transition to full speech is the moment when one realizes in a holistic way that one is always dependent on the Other. The symbolic order determines our ‘existence,’ but it is at […]

Phenomenology Philosophy of Religion

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 is published in two installments.  The whole .pdf version can be found here.  The article was conceived and written with the generous support of two research grants from the Austrian Science Fund […]