This study examines what occurs theologically in the space in which two religions meet in an immersive experience of encounter with an attitude of interreligious learning. Abhishiktananda and Bede Griffiths are examined as examples of such religious meeting and cultural interplay. Postcolonial theory, particularly Third Space Theory, supported by comparative theology, is used to analyze their texts in detail and to identify the conceptual movements taking place in this meeting between Christianity and Advaita. In their work they develop hybrid theologies (...) which lie between the two traditions, but which change the respective theological imaginaries and raise questions relating to multiple religious belonging. The Third Space Theory of Homi Bhabha, modified for the purpose of this analysis, exposes mimicry, enunciation of difference, anxiety, and hybridity, while the work of Edward Said is employed to identify constructions of the Other which do not have a genuine referent. Comparative theology supports this analysis by providing an appreciation of how Abhishiktananda and Griffiths approach another religious tradition, and how they handle religious concepts and comparisons between the two traditions. The hybridities they develop in the Third Space of encounter challenge both traditions to reflect on the experience of the Other and question exclusivist theology. However, it is apparent that to maintain the integrity and coherence of each tradition a strong sense of particularism is essential, and where this is lost interreligious learning suffers. In providing tools to identify conceptual movements in the meeting of traditions, Third Space Theory acknowledges the alterity of religions, and gives a deep understanding of the ‘same but different’ nature of such encounters. Hybridity, properly understood, then becomes a step in the process of interreligious learning, a step which leads to new insights for the home tradition. (shrink)

This thesis thinks through the messianic motif in the work of Jacques Derrida (1930- 2004) in terms of what it yields for historical theorisation. It is a development and defence of a ‘messianic historical theory’ that attempts to de-stabilize/disturb all historicization(s). I argue that all historical (re)presentation is messianic in structure in the Derridean sense. While faithful to the ‘postmodern’ critique of history (and contesting any claim that such critiques are passé) this theorisation goes beyond the secularist vocabulary that it (...) has hitherto deployed and re-equips it with an expressive ‘religious’ force (e.g., emphasizing categories of faith and fideism) that – tracking, and not wishing to be isolated from, debates regarding the ‘(re)turn to/of religion’ in contemporary cultural criticism – is indexical to these (i.e. my) time(s). Accordingly, in addition to detailed readings of Derrida’s work my theorisation draws upon the conceptual resources of the ‘(re)turn to/of religion’ in cultural criticism – particularly vis-à-vis the Derridean messianic and, pre-eminently, the work of John D. Caputo – to illuminate the im-possible messianic condition (historicity) of all historical (re)presentation which accounts for both its ceaseless proliferation/circulation and its unavoidable epistemological failure. The messianic structure which Derrida equates to the concept of a quasi-transcendental justice ‘to-come’ calls forth/generates historical (re)presentations and simultaneously undercuts their putative claims/aspirations as a ‘true’ discourse. I situate this messianic historical theory within the broader context of Derrida’s oeuvre and his thinking of/call for ‘some other concept of history’. I address various criticisms of Derrida’s (and Caputo’s) work and in the course of so doing propose a reloaded messianic historical theory strengthened by its arguable withstanding of such attacks. I propose deploying this messianic theorisation of historical (re)presentation as a tool of critical resistance (resistance to all attempts to close down the openness of the future). This resistance can be expressed as an infinite close reading of historical texts, which is – paradoxically – predicated upon/generated by that which resists thinking. The ‘originality’ and contribution to knowledge of this thesis lies in it being the first sustained engagement with the Derridean messianic in relation to historical (re)presentation. I am not aware of any work that develops and defends what I have termed a ‘messianic historical theory’ nor of any thesis length attempt to link and think historical (re)presentation and the (re)turn of religion together via Derrida’s messianic and those debates about it that have taken place in the field of cultural criticism broadly construed. (shrink)

Book: The notion of apocalypse is an age-old concept which has gained renewed interest in popular and scholarly discourse. The book highlights the versatile explications of apocalypse today, demonstrating that apocalyptic transformations – the various encounters with anthropogenic climate change, nuclear violence, polarized politics, colonial assault, and capitalist extractivism – navigate a range of interdisciplinary views on the present moment. Moving from old worlds to new worlds, from world-ending experiences to apocalyptic imaginaries and, finally, from authoritarianism to activism and advocacy, (...) the contributions begin to map the emerging field of Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies. Foregrounding the myriad ways in which collective imaginations of apocalypse underpin ethical, political, and, sometimes, individual experience, the authors provide key points of reference for understanding old and new predicaments that are transforming our many worlds. (shrink)

Contemporary theory is experiencing a crisis in grasping the present moment. Various orientations of theory remain divided between positing a fundamental rift or moment of negativity in the past and positing the need to invent or imagine a utopian future. In both cases these gestures are aimed at addressing a present that is regarded as destitute or otherwise lacking. The matrix for this division between past rift and inventive future leaving a destitute present is traced through the influence of Heidegger (...) and, especially, Nietzsche. As a result, contemporary theory inherits a reactionary model of crisis that disables its understanding of the present. Instead, the current moment of crisis and stagnation needs to be critically understood as a result of historical trends and with pathways beyond crisis to an equitable future. This current crisis is characterized by drawing, critically, on the work of Mario Tronti, which suggests the scattered nature of struggles in the present disperses critical knowledge. The result is not only capitalist crisis, but also a crisis of temporality and historical sense that is reflected in the impasses of contemporary theory. (shrink)

Coaches’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing (their epistemic beliefs) are an integral but under-researched component in the development of a philosophy of coaching. The Theory of Integrated Domains in Epistemology (TIDE)1 offers a framework which may enhance the understanding of the development of coaches’ epistemic beliefs. The present study offers the first application of the TIDE framework to sports coaching. We present a case study of the nature and development of epistemic beliefs of a highly renowned Adventure (...) Sports Coach (ASC), Doug Cooper, through the lens of the TIDE framework. Thematic analysis of a series of semi-structured interviews showed that early childhood experiences, strongly held beliefs about ASC as a domain of knowledge, and educational experiences in the later life were instrumental in shaping Doug's epistemic beliefs. We conclude that the TIDE framework has considerable potential for researchers and coach developers seeking to gain insight into and develop coaches’ beliefs. (shrink)

In this thesis I develop a model of the citizen which offers a resolution to the tension between the individual and society. This is done in two interconnected parts. In the first part of the thesis I establish the form of the citizen through a comparative analysis of the manifestation of the tension between the individual and society in the politicoeducational projects of Rousseau, Dewey and Freire in conversation with contemporary debates on the citizen. I identify the impact and influence (...) that Rousseau, Dewey and Freire have had on the contemporary debate, address their shortcomings through critical comparison and strengthen that conception within the context of the contemporary citizen. The conclusion is a citizen that is defined and discovered by the subjects that seek to embody its values. It is a bottom-up model that I call the Critical Citizen. In the second part of the thesis I investigate what model of education is suited for the development of the Critical Citizen and the political conditions necessary for its realisation. I offer an interactional and an institutional response to this investigation which addresses the relationships between members of a school as well as the relationship between the school and society. Both responses are developed through an analysis of authority as an instantiation of the tension between the individual and society, and of democratic education as a potential resolution to the problem of authority. I conclude my investigation with two radical recommendations, the first interactional and the second institutional, which is informed by the politico-educational projects of Rousseau, Dewey and Freire and the methodology which underpins their practice. I argue in favour of the large-scale incorporation of internally democratic schooling in schools in the UK and the federated disestablishment of education and state in order to protect the individuals subject to education from the coercive force of the state and of the free market. (shrink)

This article examines the spiritual dimension of jazz performance by looking at first-person accounts of improvising musicians and locating their experiential descriptions within a spiritual framework. The spiritual context is here defined as the realm of invisible processes that support and underpin the visible and auditory dimensions of improvised music. By collating evidence through first-person accounts, a series of themes emerge (wonderment, force, inspiration, letting go, happening, connection, being yourself, meaning and staying in the present), which, when seen as parts (...) of a holistic process, can provide important components that are often missed in jazz education and jazz performance. (shrink)

Coaches’ beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing (their epistemic beliefs) are an integral but under-researched component in the development of a philosophy of coaching. The Theory of Integrated Domains in Epistemology (TIDE)1 offers a framework which may enhance the understanding of the development of coaches’ epistemic beliefs. The present study offers the first application of the TIDE framework to sports coaching. We present a case study of the nature and development of epistemic beliefs of a highly renowned Adventure (...) Sports Coach (ASC), Doug Cooper, through the lens of the TIDE framework. Thematic analysis of a series of semi-structured interviews showed that early childhood experiences, strongly held beliefs about ASC as a domain of knowledge, and educational experiences in the later life were instrumental in shaping Doug's epistemic beliefs. We conclude that the TIDE framework has considerable potential for researchers and coach developers seeking to gain insight into and develop coaches’ beliefs. (shrink)

The contention of this thesis is that the environmental crisis is a result of cultural attitudes to nature as much as it is of material human impact. This study therefore seeks to address a fundamental issue for literary studies, namely the representation of nature in literature. This critical / creative project forms a natural progression from past considerations of ecocriticism, which explore how nature has been represented historically, while the creative element takes the form of an experimental young adult novel1 (...) that correlates with the critical part of my thesis. Following an outline of cultural notions of nature and wilderness in Western culture and how these inescapable historical concepts shape perception of the non-human, my research then consists of two main elements, both of which investigate how an understanding of Merleau-Pontian phenomenology in conjunction with a Kristevan theory of language can reveal how nature is portrayed in YA fiction. The critical element will attempt to develop and implement a new eco-critical perspective and apply it to the literature of David Almond, while my creative research exploring the effects of environment on human identity will be formed by a YA novel, entitled Pinhead. Central to both, will be the examination of how the ‘gestural’ origins of ‘semiotic’ ‘wild language’, are fundamental in shaping narratives which reconnect readers with their own innate sense of primal ‘carnality’. The thesis will explore how a narrative drawing on the ‘gestural’ elements of the poetic voice can represent humanity and nature within a unified biosphere, rather than as separate entities. In short, A Theory of Primal Writing aims to utilise aspects of Kristevan semanalysis to provide a connection with, and a framework for, aspects of Merleau-Pontian phenomenology, particularly the concept of an ‘affective material dimension of language, that contributes to meaning’, which is common to both theorists. This hybrid position allows the development of a new ecocritical perspective which encourages new readings of how nature is portrayed in fiction. It also, through the identification of relevant narrative techniques, develops a creative tool with which to foreground nature. (shrink)

This paper asks whether the Church of England considers sources other than the Bible in its teaching on marriage, focusing specifically on divorce and human sexuality. On the issue of divorce and the growing number of remarriages, the church felt comfortable letting reason and experience lead the discussion. However, in the more recent debates around same-sex marriage the church has continually referred to scripture. The literature review examines how marriage is understood historically verses theologically. One key observation from the literature (...) is that the historical discipline considers marriage as a human invention for social and economic purposes. This differs from marriage as defined by the theological literature which contends that its origins are divine. The fundamental theological question centres on the Churches use of the sources of theology: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. The method of discovering the answer concerns examining Church documents to understand the sources they use. The findings focus on the Church documents concerning marriage and divorce and marriage and sexuality. In the first group of reports the church is found to use scripture to dictate doctrine while using reason and experience to direct pastoral discipline. However, the distinction between doctrine and discipline is brought into question when examining the reports discussing marriage and sexuality. The documents on human sexuality make clear that expanding the Church’s definition of marriage to include same-sex relationships would fundamentally alter current doctrine. To make a change to doctrine would not only have theological consequences but national and global ones to the unity of the world-wide Church. This is due to the vast range of opinions regarding same-sex marriage within the Anglican communion. The desire to maintain unity within the global Anglican community is a contributing factor to the Church’s reluctance to alter current doctrine on marriage. This paper concludes that ultimately the church’s use of these sources is divided. Human reason and experience only given authority on policies that do not directly impact official Church doctrine, which is directed by the witness of scripture. (shrink)

Introduction On the 14th of July 1833, John Keble preached the customary sermon for the Assizes in the Oxford University church of St Mary the Virgin. The sermon was subsequently published under title “National Apostasy”. Keble was alarmed at the Church Temporalities Act 18331 which was about to become law. This Act would reduce the number of Anglican bishoprics in Ireland and the number of Irish bishops sitting in the House of Lords. For Keble, and many others, allowing non Anglicans (...) into Parliament meant that the Church of England could be governed by non-churchmen rather than the bishops, the successors of the apostles. John Henry Newman later commented, “The following Sunday, July 14th, Mr. Keble preached the Assize Sermon in the University Pulpit. It was published under the title of ‘National Apostasy’. I have ever considered and kept the day, as the start of the religious movement of 1833.” A great deal has been written about the theology, history and influence of the Oxford Movement and its successor movements such as the Ritualists. S. L. The short title in the Republic of Ireland is Church Temporalities Act 1833, assigned by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007.[1] The description "Church Temporalities Act 1833" was used in Hansard.[2] The long title is "An Act to alter and amend the Laws relating to the Temporalities of the Church in Ireland." John Henry Cardinal Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Being a History of His Religious Opinions, p. 43. 5 Ollard’s book, ‘A Short History of the Oxford Movement’3, Owen Chadwick in his two volume work on the Victorian Church4 and various other authors all focus on the themes and characters of the Nineteenth Century Church. ‘The Oxford Handbook of the Oxford Movement’5 edited by Stewart J. Brown, Peter Nockles, and James Pereiro shows that many distinguished scholars are still analyzing the influence of the Tractarians on the Church of England in the present day. In this volume, articles range from ‘The Legacy of the Caroline Divines, Restoration, the Emergence of the High Church Tradition’ by Andrew Starkie to ‘Histories and Anti-Histories’ by Nockles. This volume from 2017 demonstrates that the study of the Oxford Movement and its related endeavours is still of great interest to contemporary academics. Although this work deals with many subjects, it is surprisingly quiet of the slum priests of the Victorian era. Although a great deal of research exists on the broad theological and sociological effects of the Oxford Movement, there is still a lack of research into the realities of working the Tractarian theology out in real parishes. Victorian figures such as Archdeacon Dennison and Fr. Arthur Tooth are well known, many others, however, do not attract the attention they merit. This dissertation will deal with a barely acknowledged figure in this movement, the Reverend Richard William Enraght SSC. He was born on the 23rd of February 1837 in Moneymore, County Londonderry, Ireland6. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in1860. After his ordination to the diaconate at Gloucester Cathedral, he served his title in St Bartholomew, Corsham, Wiltshire, being ordained to the priesthood in 1862. After curacies in Wiltshire, Sheffield and Lincolnshire, Enraght served as curate of St Pauls’ church, Brighton under the Revd. Arthur Wagner from 1867-71 and as curate in Charge of Portslade by Sea with Hangleton from 1871-1874. It is clear that Enraght was already sympathetic to the ritualist movement that had developed in the wake of the first generation Oxford Movement. His sermon on ‘Bible Ritualism’ which will be dealt with later in this dissertation, pointed to his developing thought on the matter. Indeed, it may be a motive for his accepting a curacy in Brighton under Arthur Wagner. Wagner was a great influence on Enraght during his seven years in and around Brighton. From the moment of Arthur Wagner’s presentation as Perpetual Curate of St Paul’s church in 1850 he was the pioneer of the Tractarian Movement or “Puseyism” as it was called. In his PhD thesis, Stratford deals with the so-called ‘slum priests’ of the midVictorian period: Bryan King, Charles Fuge Lowder, Alexander Heriot Mackonochie, Arthur Henry Stanton, Robert William Radcliffe Dolling, John Purchas, Arthur Tooth, Richard William Enraght. Four of the eight named above were graduates of Oxford University, and three Cambridge. All eight served in slum areas through their ritual controversies. from The Oxford graduates were well known shared similar influences. Dolling came into this same circle having encountered Mackonochie and Stanton during his time in Cambridge. Their influence by the Oxford Movement is quite direct.8 Enraght is the only one on this list who was neither a graduate of Oxford nor Cambridge. However, the Oxford Movement’s influence had spread throughout the Church of England principally through the ‘Tracts for the Times’9 and the scholar-clergy who wrote them. The Oxford Movement grew out of this desire to re-connect with the Primitive Church. Newman’s research on Arianism had led him to delve deeply into the Early Church Fathers. Rowlands notes that, ‘By 1835 Newman had been reading the Fathers for many years. The Romantic spirit did much to arouse Newman.’ A set of ninety pamphlets written by various authors, from 1833-1841, notably including J H Newman who wrote, among others, the first and the last. The notoriety of the 90th Tract triggered much controversy in the Church of England. 10 J. H. L. Rowlands, Church, State and Society, The Attitudes of John Keble, Richard Hurrell Froude and John Henry Newman, 1827-1845, p. 15 8 As further evidence of his embrace of what would now be called AngloCatholicism, Enraght was enrolled in the Society of the Holy Cross in 1868.11 The Societas Sanctae Crucis was founded on the 28th of February 1855, Its objects are to defend and strengthen the spiritual life of the clergy, to defend the faith of the Church, and to carry on and aid Mission work both at home and abroad. The members of this society, meeting together as they did in prayer and conference, were deeply impressed with the evils in the Church, and saw also, in the remedies adopted by St. Vincent de Paul, the hope of lessening them. Members of the SSC would be at the heart of many of the battles over the Catholic identity of the Church of England in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. While Enraght was at St Paul’s, Brighton, he witnessed the legal difficulties of the Reverend John Purchas, perpetual curate of St James, Brighton, who was charged before the Court of Arches in 1869 for various of his ritual practices. This Vincentian mixture of concern for the poor and clear Catholic teaching must have appealed to Enraght. He had already shown his advocacy for the 11 THE Roll Of Brethren And Probationers Of The Society of the Holy Cross, 1876-77. W. KNOTT, 26, Brooke Street, Holborn. The next chapter will analyse his sermon, ‘To The Poor The Gospel Is Preached’ given in the parish church in 1865. This dissertation will trace Enraght’s life and thought through his published works. In order to maintain clarity, only his major works will be dealt with in detail and they will be arranged thematically where necessary as he sometimes returned to a subject later in his life. Some of the minor publications are still not easily available. Although Enraght was one of the “martyrs” who were sent to prison for ritual abuses, he is hardly mentioned in the historical literature of the period. Why do so many books about this period skate over Enraght? The classic ‘A Short History of the Oxford Movement’, which did so much, in the early part of the 20th Century, to record the achievements of the pioneer Tractarians and Ritualists, only mentions Enraght in passing. Palmer, likewise, in a book focusing on Victorian clergy who fought against the Establishment, deals with Enraght in part of one paragraph and a footnote. Owen Chadwick’s second volume of his great study of the Victorian Church is similarly brief on Enraght’s contribution to the events of his day. It is the contention of this dissertation that in Enraght’s published works a Vincentian16 blend of social justice and Catholic teaching will be found. Although it is wrapped up in the language of his day, a language that can sound patronizing to the modern ear, Enraght had a profound desire to reach the working classes and those he believed the Church had alienated. Enraght, along with Lowder, the founder of the Societas Sanctae Crucis, believed that Eucharistic vestments and other accessories said in a graphic and indisputable way that the Church of England was part of a universal Catholic Church that had historical and theological roots reaching far deeper than England itself.17 Each chapter will reveal something of Enraght’s motivation and theology. From a sermon on the abolition of pew rents and the welcome of the working classes into the new urban parish churches through a paper on the role of ritual in the Bible and the Church and a Tract about the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of Holy Communion to a robust rebuttal of the Church’s treatment of him in his prosecution under the Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874, Enraght’s passion for the Catholic nature of the Church of England and her mission to the whole nation, rich and poor alike, is St Vincent de Paul was a French Catholic priest who worked to educate the workers in cities and to form priests to serve them. Each chapter of this dissertation will deal with one facet of Enraght’s Vincentian spirtituality as he worked it out not in the Groves of Academe but in the grime and dirt of poor and neglected communities. (shrink)

The work of the late Foucault, especially the turn to the care of the self and the problem of subjectivity, has often been regarded as a narcissistic withdrawal from politics. Instead, this essay argues that such a charge ignores how Foucault was responding to arguments highly-critical of individualism developed in the late 1970s, especially Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism (1979). Not only was Foucault concerned with rehabilitating a notion of individualism, his historical reconstruction of the care of the self (...) emphasized that this philosophical practice was not a withdrawal from public space but a new way of conceiving ethics and politics. Focusing on the issues of crisis and transition this essay reconstructs Foucault’s historical reflections on Greek and Roman practices of the care of the self as mediated responses to the crisis of politics in the late 1970s and as re-conceptualizations of the practice of philosophy. In particular, Foucault’s late work is read as the attempt to reconstruct or construct a sense of the vocation of philosophy. The philosophical vocation developed by Foucault is one concerned with the intensification of experience within the subject conceived of as the possibility for a new engagement with the world. (shrink)

Existing evidence suggests that children from around the age of 8 years strategically alter their public image in accordance with known values and preferences of peers, through the self-descriptive information they convey. However, an important but neglected aspect of this 'self-presentation' is the medium through which such information is communicated: the voice itself. The present study explored peer audience effects on children's vocal productions. Fifty-six children were presented with vignettes where a fictional child, matched to the participant's age and sex, (...) is trying to make friends with a group of same-sex peers with stereotypically masculine or feminine interests. Participants were asked to impersonate the child in that situation and, as the child, to read out loud masculine, feminine and gender-neutral self-descriptive statements to these hypothetical audiences. They also had to decide which of those self-descriptive statements would be most helpful for making friends. In line with previous research, boys and girls preferentially selected masculine or feminine self-descriptive statements depending on the audience interests. Crucially, acoustic analyses of fundamental frequency and formant frequency spacing revealed that children also spontaneously altered their vocal productions: they feminized their voices when speaking to members of the ballet club, while they masculinized their voices when speaking to members of the rugby club. Both sexes also feminized their voices when uttering feminine sentences, compared to when uttering masculine and gender-neutral sentences. Implications for the hitherto neglected role of acoustic qualities of children's vocal behaviour in peer interactions are discussed. This article is part of the theme issue 'Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact '. (shrink)

In this chapter, Hannah Strømmen examines the uses of texts in the practices of far-right populism, specifically the uses of the sacred scriptures of Muslims and Christians. Identifying patterns of scripture-practice is promising because it demonstrates the way different incarnations of the far right utilize shared strategies, particularly when it comes to the role Christianity and Islam play in contemporary populism in Western Europe. Strømmen argues that there are three main traits to far-right populist scripture-practices: the shoring up of the (...) ‘enemy,’ the reinforcement of us and them into different ‘scripture-cultures,’ and a focus on scriptures as symbols and material artefacts rather than as texts to be read and interpreted. Ultimately, Strømmen suggests that further work is necessary in what she calls ‘political scripture research’ and ‘lived scripture.’. (shrink)

Populism and conspiracism are historically and conceptually intertwined. Conspiracism offers narratives that supports simplified and binary worldviews. Confronted with a complex and rapidly changing world, it provides order. With its suspicions of global elites and distrust of official accounts, it is particularly amenable to populism. Populism and conspiracism also present the same conundrum to those who wish to diminish their influence: critiques of populism and conspiracism inevitably reinforce the social and political dynamics that animate populism and conspiracism in the first (...) place. These critiques distance individuals, groups and movements that one finds objectionable—these people become the culturally repugnant other. Focusing on the example of QAnon, I ague that critiques of populism mirror earlier critiques of fundamentalism. In response, I draw on political theology to argue that populism and conspiracism should not be opposed as inappropriate political styles, but on the basis of the racist and xenophobic ends to which they are directed. (shrink)

My thesis seeks to challenge the existing understanding of the relationship between Romanticism and Post-Modernism in order to put into question the traditional historiographical view of the division of literary history into a series of discrete epochs, each one consecutive to the passing away of the other. My methodology devolves upon a close reading and analysis of the work of three writers and philosophers: the philosopher Immanuel Kant, the 'Post-Modern' French feminist writer Helene Cixous and the 'Romantic' philosopher and poet (...) Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Through my examination of the oeuvres of these three writers I seek to demonstrate that, in the domain of subjectivity, there is a strong commonality of approach to the question of the construction of the subject in despite of the gulf of time that separates them. In this way I demonstrate that the historiographical approach, which involves the fissuring of the works of writers and philosophers into discrete historical events, is fundamentally susceptible of being put into question. (shrink)

The thesis presents the hypothesis that the systematic theology of Paul Tillich offers significant new benefits towards church unity. The methodology used in pursuit of this aim, is a critical analysis of Tillich's early and late thought. Tillich' s work was influenced by the German philosophical and theological schools and came to expression in American academia in his publication Systematic Theology. The results of this analysis reveal Tillich's consistent commitment to the concept of Gestalt. This finding has been broadened to (...) include the concept that the strength of ecclesial unity is dependent upon the understanding that every ecclesial denomination is an effective element in the constituency of the whole Church. This argument is supported by a deconstruction of Tillich' s system that is keyed into the hermeneutical theories of Gadamer and Derrida. The system is then reconstructed in terms of a new Gestalt that turns on the hypothesis that there is a relationship of synthesis between philosophy and theology within the Tillichian system, rather than the complementary relationship that Tillich claims. This conclusion is based upon the system being perceived as being founded upon the Western classical philosophical and theological traditions. A critique of Tillich's incorporation of modern existential hermeneutics into this system is made principally in relation to the existentialist thought of Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Sartre. A hermeneutic of Tillich' s existential critique serves to highlight the questions that result from existential disruption rather than to label him as an existentialist per se. The system is thus moved forward into the post-modern context under new hermeneutics. An analysis of Tillich's ecclesiology reveals that this is both eschatological and Trinitarian in nature. The relationship between Tillich's system and ecclesiology is brought into dialogue by means of their being expressed in terms of an ecclesiological circle. These hermeneutics are compared and contrasted with the ecclesiologies of Zizioulas and Haight and the published ecumenical documents of The World Council of Churches in order to reveal their commonalties. When the system has thus been applied to the current ecumenical dialogue, then it becomes apparent that the raison d'etre of Tillich's system is the Church and the raison d'etre of the Church is the system. The squaring of Paul Tillich's ecclesiological circle is thus made complete. (shrink)

This thesis will construct a model of person through a comparison of ideas relating to a concept of person in the Byzantine and Pratyabhijnii traditions. Questions will be asked, such as, whether a concept of person can be constructed within these two traditions, and how can ideas developed from these traditions be utilised to construct a model of person? This thesis will provide an in depth examination of terms and concepts that will be related to a concept of person within (...) the two traditions, examining the ontological and existential implications of those terms. This work will also develop, from a subsequent convergence of the theologies of the two traditions, a model of person that is inter-religious and dialogical. Though this work is analytical in nature, in its deconstructing philosophical and theological models relating to person, it is also constructive, taking what is useful from the Byzantine and Pratyabhijnii traditions so as to construct a new model of person through the development of the term, Atman-hypostasis which looks to understanding human personhood in the fullest mystical state within the human condition. A comparison of the two traditions has not been attempted before in relation to the theological discourse of person; neither has such an extensive examination and deconstruction of the concept person in Byzantine and Pratyabhijnii traditions been undertaken in relation to contemporary studies; neither has a construction of this type of model of person been undertaken. This work, in constructing a new term Atmanhypostasis, which emerged from this research as an outcome of the comparison of terms and ideas relating to a concept of person in both traditions, will contribute to the academic theological field of personhood and this thesis will also contribute to the field of inter-religious dialogue in developing an anthropological model that aims to overcome the barriers that separate and divide. (shrink)

My purpose in the researching and the writing of this thesis has been to investigate, and to try to explain, Frank Ankersmit's curious shift from his well expressed and firmly held narrativist position of "Narrative Logic", to an arguably contradictory, yet passionately held counter belief in the plausibility of a form of direct historical experience - an authentic unmediated relationship with the past. I am, accordingly, presenting here what I believe to be the most adequate explanatory account of/for Ankersmit's intellectual (...) journey. A journey which, in essence, constituted a substitution of his earlier representational, language centred philosophy of history for what might be taken as a new and mystical non-representational theory. This alternative theory of Ankersmit' s, lacking cognitive foundations, works on the basis of sensations, moods, feelings and therefore a consciousness deemed to be received directly from the past itself, and therein - for this thesis - lies its fatal weakness as a historical theory. Belief in the mystical may be all right at some level, if this is what is wanted, but a mystical experience itself cannot produce a historical re-presentation which is the only way that the past can be presented historically. Thus, I argue that Ankersmit's journey from language to experience - the latter phenomenon being more appropriately situated within the field of sociology/social theory and memory studies - is, in the end, a lost historical cause. (shrink)

Drawing on philosophy, theology and psychoanalysis as well as on literary criticism, this collection of essays explores a range of fantasy texts with particular attention to the various ways in which they seek to deal with the reality of death. The essays uncover some fascinating links, and indeed tensions, between the writers discussed.

This work represents a contribution to the dialogue between the traditions of Eastern and Western Christian thought. Through the writings of Karl Barth and John Zizioulas, Dr Collins seeks to set up an ecumenical dialogue concerning Trinitarian thought.

This work addresses the imbrication between ‘insurrectional anarchism’ and the thinking of life as ‘savage ontology’ identified by Foucault. Insurrectional anarchism is that “strain” of anarchist thought that dictates the rejection of existing organisations, uncompromising negation, and the immediate destruction of all external forms of power and control in violent insurrection. I link this to Foucault’s positing of a ‘savage ontology of life’, in which “Life” exceeds and erodes all forms of constraint and representation. Tracing through classical insurrectionary anarchism – (...) Bakunin, Stirner, and Novatore – I explore the convergence of this post- and anti-Hegelian thinking with contemporary theory, especially the work of Deleuze. While this kind of thinking gains its revolutionary and theoretical élan through its disregard for the forms of capitalist and State power, I argue that hymning “Life,” qua destructive and excessive force, does not so much challenge the fundamental tenets of capitalism as risk replicating the molten core of its own contradictory ideology. (shrink)

This book aims to rehabilitate a thinking of negativity within and against the usual forms of contemporary Continental Theory. It identifies and presents an analysis of the dominant tone of ‘affirmationism’ in contemporary theory: the insistence on starting from the affirmation of metaphysical ontologies, the inventive potential of the subject, the necessity for the production of novelty, and a concomitant suspicion of the negative and negativity. Despite all the conflicts and ‘wars’ of contemporary theory, this tone remains an unstated point (...) of unification. Although it was often developed to resist the corrosive effects of contemporary capitalism, this work argues that affirmationism remains bound to its ideological coordinates in its emphasis on production, creativity, and invention. Critically reconstructing this ‘affirmationism’ through the work of Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, Antonio Negri, and Alain Badiou, the book also recovers from their work a disavowed thinking of negativity. Dependent on negativity, despite their claims to affirmation, this dependence allows a critique of the reliance on affirmation. Also, this negativity is turned against this affirmative tone to develop a more sharply-focused political analysis of theory, and to suggest the possible politics emerging from a relational thinking of negativity. Contents: Introduction 1. On the Edge of Affirmation: Derrida 2. Adieu to Negativity: Deleuze 3. The Density and Fragility of the World: Latour 4. Immeasurable Life: Negri 5. On the Edge of the Negative: Badiou Conclusion. (shrink)

The research-practice gap is an ongoing concern for sport and exercise science researchers. Despite ongoing efforts to ‘bridge’ the gap between research and practice, a know-do gap remains. Drawing from alternative fields of research (e.g., healthcare, implementation science), the purpose of this article is to outline an emerging research approach to maximise research uptake in practice. Specifically, this article explains the what, why, and how of integrated knowledge translation (iKT), and how this approach to research is well suited to qualitative (...) researchers. Challenging the traditional way academics have conducted research, iKT proposes that researchers work with and not on those in practice settings. As an approach to research under which many forms of qualitative inquiry can fall, the article illustrates how the practical nature of iKT aligns with what qualitative researchers from various traditions do in action. We discuss how iKT possesses three synergies with qualitative inquiry: meaningful researcher engagement, understanding context, and tolerating flexible research designs. (shrink)

Alain Badiou writes that Slavoj Žižek’s work ‘is the first time that anyone has proposed to psychoanalyze our whole world.’ I want to take Žižek seriously as a reader, even as a reading machine who consumes everything. Of course, Žižek is constantly accused of being a bad reader: sloppy, inaccurate, too rapid, dependent on secondary sources, and otherwise unreliable. Without simply exonerating Žižek from these charges, I want to consider this ‘bad reading’, which violates the protocols of academia and philosophy, (...) as a method. Whereas Žižek seeks his own philosophical credentials as a ‘dialectical materialist philosopher’ in his ontology of incompletion – of the ‘non-all’ – I will argue that the true domain of his ‘philosophy’ is a practice of interpretation and reading. Contrary to the image of Žižek as constantly reterritorializing everything under his conceptual matrix, and more particularly the Lacanian ‘Real’, we find that, as in Žižek’s reading of the Oedipus complex, he deterritorializes philosophy. Reversing the valence of Geoffrey Harpham’s claim that Žižek is ‘the end of knowledge’, I will argue his method is the end of knowledge, but also the birth of truth. This truth is the displacement and reworking of philosophy coincident with the world. (shrink)

This book is dedicated to the proposition that we must return to language to develop a coherent materialism that can grasp the forms and forces of abstraction that determine our existence. If, today, the prison-house of language has been abandoned for the ‘great outdoors’ of matter and things, this hasty exit has abandoned the possibility of grasping abstraction. The qualities once attributed to the human subject – will, freedom, contingency, etc. – are simply now displaced on to the thing or (...) object. This displacement deliberately forgets the power of language as medium of exteriorisation and abstraction. To return to language is to return to the problem of materialism as a relation of language to matter. The aim of this book, through a series of interventions, is to sketch and specify this relation as one in which language engages and transforms the material. Poetry, here, is the supplement that by placing language under pressure to engage matter, turning language to matter, offers the possibility of a new thinking of the concrete that traverses abstraction. (shrink)

This essay reflects on Gilles Deleuze's important essay on the societies of control and argues that this essay remains to be integrated into Deleuze's thinking. The essay compromises a kind of self-criticism, in which a number of Deleuzian concepts are revealed to be in close congruence with the emerging capitalist society of control. This traumatic obsolescence of Deleuze's own conceptual tools remains to be thought through. Such a thinking may have to confront the abstract formulation of control and life in (...) Deleuze's conceptual vocabulary and consider a new thinking and new weapons of critical analysis. (shrink)

This essay responds to Frederic Jameson’s Allegory and Ideology by arguing that this book is centrally concerned with the masses. By developing Jameson’s own model of allegorical reading the pressure of the masses on the text is explored. This is demonstrated through a reading of Albert Camus’s The Plague, Jameson’s central example of ‘bad’ allegory. While this novel is ‘bad’ for implying a one-to-one allegory between the plague infection and the occupation of France during World War Two or to the (...) human condition, a reading of the text as biopolitical allegory reveals the complex presence of the masses. Finally, this response considers the ‘immortality’ of the masses as the utopian moment traced within Allegory and Ideology. (shrink)

The essay considers how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies embody a desire for a purely virtual money and a secure and stable form of money. This seeming paradox encodes a politics that both embraces the force of the market and demarcates hierarchies in terms of access and of technical capacity, which are often then linked to social categories. In this way cryptocurrency becomes aligned with a reactionary or 'alt right' politics. The suggestion of the essay is we need to critically consider (...) issues of mediation and grasp how the 'hybridity' of cryptocurrency is a political and social problem. (shrink)

In this intervention, I reflect on Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism as a work better known for its title, as a phrase or slogan, than for the substance of the book. While indicative of the success of Fisher’s diagnosis, one borne out through the experience of capitalist crisis and austerity, I want to turn to the problem of the alternative and the future that was a constant concern of Fisher’s writing. In particular, probing the “realism” in “capitalist realism,” I want to (...) consider Fisher’s interest in the breakdown of capitalist realism. This “breakdown” is indicated negatively by psychic suffering and collapse, but also positively by the cultural forms of the weird and eerie as markers of a consciousness beyond “capitalist realism,” the mapping of capitalist crisis, and the futures that might positively emerge through breakdown. At stake in the substance of Fisher’s work, I suggest, lies a class phenomenology concerned with not only grasping the suffering inflicted by capitalist culture, but also the possibilities of a breakdown of realism that would imagine a future oriented to a new collective experience beyond the existing limits of psychic and social formations. (shrink)

Another consideration of the work of Bruno Latour and the evolution of his position on critique. Reflecting on the ways in which critique is associated with destruction by Latour I also turn to the moderation of his anti-critique stance in the face of Donald Trump and global warning. While a welcome moderation, this new engagement with struggle stops short of more material engagements with critique.

Since its publication, Complex Adaptive Leadership has become a Gower bestseller that has been taught in corporate leadership programmes, business schools and universities around the world to high acclaim. In this updated paperback edition, Nick Obolensky argues that leadership should not be something only exercised by nominated leaders. It is a complex dynamic process involving all those engaged in a particular enterprise. The theoretical background to this lies in complexity science and chaos theory - spoken and written about in the (...) context of leadership for the last 20 years, but still little understood. We all seem intuitively to know leadership 'isn't what it used to be' but we still cling to old assumptions which look anachronistic in changing and challenging times. Nick Obolensky has practised, researched and taught leadership in the public, private and voluntary sectors. In this exciting book he brings together his knowledge of theory, his own experience, and the results of 19 years of research involving 2,500 executives in 40 countries around the world. The main conclusion from that research is that the more complex things become, the less traditional directive leadership is needed. Those operating in the real world, nonetheless, need ways of coping. The book is focused on helping practitioners struggling to interpret and react to increasingly VUCA times. The book will particularly appeal to practitioners wishing to improve their leadership effectiveness as well as for students and researchers in the field of leadership. (shrink)

An exploration of poetry and religious experience in the UK between 1960 and 2015, with a particular focus on poets with a Christian belief.

It is a common assumption that one of the fundamental roles of public theology is to ‘speak truth to power’. This article examines the work of William Temple and Elaine Graham to suggest there are problems with this model. In particular, in our postmodern context, it is difficult to agree on what constitutes truth as well as locate the powerful to whom truth should be spoken. Richard Rorty’s notion of edification is suggested as an alternate model for public theologians. In (...) this schema the public theologian redescribes social, political and cultural texts with a view to providing original insights which engender empathy for the poor and oppressed. (shrink)

Hegel’s philosophy is in tension with liberalism, containing both liberalizing tendencies and rejecting liberal norms. I explore this tension by investigating the relationship between religion, fanaticism, and world history in Hegel’s discussion of Islam. Drawing on recent work that considers Hegel’s treatment of race and world history, I show that he views Islam as a form of fanaticism that is antithetical to Christian Europe. This rejection of Islam stands in contrast to his treatment of the French Revolution, which is a (...) fanaticism that can be incorporated into world history. I conclude that Hegel does not provide resources for narrating a history of a more inclusive Europe, but that interrogating his philosophy offers strategies for thinking askew the liberal “problem-space” and reconsidering identities formed in opposition to the Islamic fanatic. Such an interrogation reveals the assumptions at work in contemporary debates about the liberalization of Islam. (shrink)

The term ‘holism’ implies both an opposition to atomism, alongside the notion that particular elements cannot be fully understood independently from the universal dimension of the whole. Ian Hornsby sets out to construct a Critical Realist framework, taken from the early writings of Roy Bhaskar, as a philosophical strategy for investigating holism in the writings of both Gilles Deleuze and Jung. The construction of bronze, from the forging together of tin and copper, has been used as a metaphor through which (...) to observe holism as a form of emergence. Evident in Deleuze’s collaboration with Félix Guattari is the manner in which their writing points to the emergent properties within art as containing the ability to reterritorialize our relations with the world. A form of emergence can also be seen in Jung’s writings on the formation of the Transcendent Function, ‘which creates a transition from one attitude to another’ as the engine of individuation, where a third thing emerges from this process. Using sections of sequential art to help elucidate particular ideas from Critical Realism, Hornsby addresses themes of emergence as these relate to our comprehension of what the world must be like for our understanding of it to make sense. (shrink)

The article argues that Richard Rorty’s idea of edification should be adopted as the central approach of public theology. It begins by outlining Rorty’s definition of edification before exploring the argument in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature which led to this definition. Various critical responses are then explored, especially the critique by Roy Bhaskar that Rorty’s approach is politically frivolous. However it is suggested that the criticism that Rorty is either relativist or unconcerned with ethical agency is unfair. Instead, (...) rather than being concerned with different types of speaking Truth to power, public theologians should be focused on producing novel, unique and eye-catching redescriptions of social and political phenomena. (shrink)

Utopias of the text are the moments of the emergence of a new and radical concept of the text as overflowing all limits and boundaries. Here these utopias are traced in the writings of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. They often emerge at the margins of these texts, in fragments or boundaries at which the utopia can be glimpsed before disappearing. These utopian moments can be reconstructed as a form of thinking the post-literary and its limits. They can (...) also be traced to the explosion of speech during May 1968 and Maurice Blanchot is a key figure who links together this political moment with the ‘neutral’ form of writing. This article explores the fading of these utopias of the text alongside this draining of political energies. These processes of critique and waning suggest the inversion of utopias of the text into dystopias of the text. Now the sign or signifier appears dispersed or even insignificant compared to the powers and forces of post-literary domination. In this situation, however, the article suggests, the persistence of the utopias of the text as a critical horizon that can still inform how we grasp the equivocations of our post-literary moment. (shrink)

This edited volume explores site-specific dance performance and engages with interdisciplinary perspectives that explore what this type of work might tell us regarding human processes of being-in-the-world.

Hegel's philosophy of religion contains an implicit political theology. When viewed in connection with his wider work on subjectivity, history and politics, this political theology is a resource for apocalyptic thinking. In a world of climate change, inequality, oppressive gender roles and racism, Hegel can be used to theorise the hope found in the end of that world. Histories of apocalyptic thinking draw a line connecting the medieval prophet Joachim of Fiore and Marx. This line passes through Hegel, who transforms (...) the relationship between philosophy and theology by philosophically employing theological concepts to critique the world. Jacob Taubes provides an example of this Hegelian political theology, weaving Christianity, Judaism and philosophy to develop an apocalypticism that is not invested in the world. Taubes awaits the end of the world knowing that apocalyptic destruction is also a form of creation. Catherine Malabou discusses this relationship between destruction and creation in terms of plasticity. Using plasticity to reformulate apocalypticism allows for a form of apocalyptic thinking that is immanent and materialist. Together Hegel, Taubes and Malabou provide the resources for thinking about why the world should end. The resulting apocalyptic pessimism is not passive, but requires an active refusal of the world. (shrink)

Holism is one of the ‘muddier’ concepts in philosophy and psychology. It is a term that involves both an opposition to atomism, alongside the obscure notion that particular elements cannot be fully understood independently from the universal dimension of the whole. Any word that can be employed so widely, is probably being used to cover too much ground, as well as, too little, and as such, lacks a useful philosophical basis. In this chapter, Ian Hornsby sets out to construct a (...) Critical Realist framework, taken from the early writings of Roy Bhaskar, as a philosophical strategy for investigating holism in the writings of both Gilles Deleuze and C.G. Jung. The construction of bronze, from the forging together of tin and copper, has been used as a metaphor through which to observe holism as a form of emergence. Something that can be seen in Deleuze’s collaboration with Félix Guattari in the manner in which their writing points to the emergent properties within art as containing the ability to reterritorialize our relations with the world. ‘What defines the territory is the emergence of matters of expression … Can this becoming, this emergence, be called art?’ A form of emergence can also be seen in Jung’s writings on the formation of the Transcendent Function, ‘which creates a transition from one attitude to another’ as the engine of individuation, where a third thing emerges from this process, ‘a changed situation’, ‘a new attitude’, through a dialogue between conscious and unconscious. By using small sections of sequential art to help elucidate particular ideas from Critical Realism, Hornsby addresses themes of emergence as these relate to our comprehension of what the world must be like for our understanding of it to make sense. (shrink)

This article examines three comic books, Silver Surfer #11, Omega Men #9 and Promethea #12, as philosophy in themselves, and not merely as supplements to philosophical texts or as a convenient form through which the complex ideas of philosophy can be elucidated. Each of these three issues utilises the form of the Möbius Strip in their fabrication in a variety of ways that contend with concepts of the One and the Infinite. Within their construction, these comics challenge ways of reading (...) that are exclusive to the form of the comic book medium and enable a distinctive method for exploring themes of the good life, truth, and creativity. The article then returns full circle once again to further interrogate the manner in which each of these three comic books engages with the four choices we are faced with in our understanding of the One and the Infinite. (shrink)

The decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, to ‘Brexit’, appears as a traumatic shock. Here this shock is examined in the context of the national imaginary of ‘Englishness’ and its relationship to theory. I focus on the theoretical tendency known as accelerationism, which suggests we embrace abstraction and modernity to transcend the limits of contemporary capitalism into a new post-capitalist society. Accelerationism embraces the future and modernity, in contrast with the seemingly backward-looking imaginaries of Brexit. The (...) desire of accelerationism to transcend national limits, including these backward-looking imaginaries of Englishness, is actually shaped by these imaginaries. In this way, accelerationism and the debates around it offers ways to unlock the social, psychic and theoretical formations that condition Brexit as well. What they reveal is the way in which Brexit is shaped by a particularly ‘English’ form of modernisation. (shrink)

This article explores the idea of a deeply embodied consciousness during movement, which has become one of the most intensely discussed topics in terms of the phenomenology and spirituality of dance and somatic practices. The strive towards an embodied state of consciousness has been historically present in the context of Zen Buddhist philosophy, wherein true embodiment is considered an enlightened state of being, wherein one’s consciousness transcends the barriers of mind versus body, self versus other and human versus non-human; it (...) is thought that, in this state, we experience a visceral enlightenment towards our inherent connection to (or interrelation with) the spiritual and physical world around us, and that this state is a form of ‘purified’ – or even optimal – being. Phenomenological aspects underpinning this paradigm will be unpacked through representative cases of eastern movement practices whose founding philosophies align with Zen Buddhist thought. Among these movement practices will be Nihon-buyo (Japanese traditional dance), eastern martial arts and Butoh, which all utilize movement as a meditative process towards a state of selfworld transcendence. At the end of the article, the phenomenon of deeply embodied consciousness will be reframed and explained through the lens of neurophenomenology, with the aim of bringing forth the validity and relevance of this phenomenon in the newly emerging scientific research of consciousness and attention. (shrink)

This paper is part of an ongoing research project which attempts to recognise comic books as philosophy. This approach resists interpreting comics as supplements to written works of philosophy or using comics as a convenient means by which to elucidate philosophical ideas. The project also moves away from interrogating comic books through already existing philosophical lenses. However, this doesn’t mean completely ignoring philosophical ideas, which clearly exist within the context from which comic books themselves are made and read, and which (...) have an impact upon both their fabrication and interpretation. What I illustrate via theoretical, contextual, and practical undertakings, across multiple engagements with the comics we buy each and every Wednesday; is to appreciate how western notions of ontology, our definitions concerning the nature of existence, and epistemology, our knowledge of the world; have been radically transformed through our fabrication of, and encounters with, the form and content of comic books. This claim suggests that our engagement with graphic narratives has caused a measurable shift in our interpretation of space-time, image and text, as well as our grasp of psychology, ethical questions, aesthetic sensibilities, and styles of composition, in what I term the ‘combined intensity’ of the comic book. In this paper I interrogate the artist J.H. Williams III, from his work on Sandman Overture and Promethea looking in detail at how his use of colour, composition, acting, story-telling, and use of text within the image, give the reader a unique, and original philosophical interpretation of the world. (shrink)

Working memory capacity has been found to be impaired in adolescents with various psychological problems, such as addictive behaviors. Training of working memory capacity can lead to significant behavioral improvements, but it is usually long and tedious, taxing participants' motivation to train. This study aimed to evaluate whether adding game elements to the training could help improve adolescents' motivation to train while improving cognition. A total of 84 high school students were allocated to a working memory capacity training, a gamified (...) working memory capacity training, or a placebo condition. Working memory capacity, motivation to train, and drinking habits were assessed before and after training. Self-reported evaluations did not show a self-reported preference for the game, but participants in the gamified working memory capacity training condition did train significantly longer. The game successfully increased motivation to train, but this effect faded over time. Working memory capacity increased equally in all conditions but did not lead to significantly lower drinking, which may be due to low drinking levels at baseline. We recommend that future studies attempt to prolong this motivational effect, as it appeared to fade over time. [copyright: ©Wouter J Boendermaker, Thomas E Gladwin, Margot Peeters, Pier JM Prins, Reinout W Wiers. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games, 23.05.2018.]. (shrink)

The main intention of this paper is to present my research into the idea that the comic book form is philosophy. An examination of comic books as something more than a supplement to philosophical ideas. It’s my intention in this research to make the assertion that western society has been radically transformed through our fabrication of, and encounters with, the form of the comic book. This paper develops on from this idea and also draws upon the writing of Antonio Gramsci (...) on grammar from the Prison Notebooks, and on Hegel’s writing on Immanence, from his Phenomenology of Spirit. I will also examine two comic books from the Superhero genre, Omega Men #9 and Silver Surfer #11, both fabricated in 2015. (shrink)

This paper is a part of an ongoing research project which attempts to recognise comic books as philosophy. This approach resists interpreting comics as supplements to written philosophy or using comics as a convenient means by which to elucidate philosophical ideas. This project also moves away from interrogating comic books through already existing philosophical lenses. However, this doesn’t mean completely ignoring philosophical ideas, which clearly exist within the context from which comic books themselves are made and read, and which have (...) an impact upon both their fabrication and interpretation. In this paper, I interrogate Ed Piskor’s X-Men Grand Design, a series of six books that was begun in 2017. (shrink)

This paper presents an exchange between four practitioners from distinct disciplines of site dance, performance art, philosophy, and experimental writing and pedagogy. It presents responses to provocations that position these practices as containers of Situated Knowledge. Drawing on practical inquiry it illustrates particular practices and approaches to the transmission and reception of practical knowledge, and employs the notion of ‘parasitic endeavour’ as a lens to facilitate discussion of how disciplinary specific practices and emerging knowledges might traverse from one discipline to (...) another. (shrink)

The use of animals to denote negative characteristics rises out of a long-standing reliance on the distinction – both strikingly dogmatic and strategically dynamic – between what is “human” and what is “animal”. One of the most influential texts to use animal imagery in conjuring up antipathy is the book of Revelation. Focusing on the female-animal assemblage of Revelation 17, I argue that in examining this assemblage more closely through Jacques Derrida’s notion of a deconstructed sovereignty, it is possible to (...) destabilise facile connotations and connections between animals and an “other” beastliness that must be violently conquered. (shrink)

Recent critiques of the category religion discuss the category as socially constructed, but the nature of this social construction remains underdeveloped. The work of Sally Haslanger can supplement existing discussions of ‘religion’ while also offering a new perspective on the connection between social construction and social critique. Her analysis of race provides resources for developing a philosophical account of the social construction of religion and can help scholars of religion conceptualize racialized religious identities. I offer an example of this approach (...) by using Haslanger’s work on race to consider historical and contemporary intersections of race and Muslim identity. I conclude that the ongoing ideological work of ‘religion’ means that the concept remains an analytically useful term, but that scholars should aim at the gradual abolition of ‘religion’. (shrink)

Research suggests that psychological characteristics and social behaviors contribute to the development of coaching effectiveness and as such should not be neglected by strength and conditioning coaches. This review examines the current literature on the influence of psychosocial characteristics and behaviors of the S&C coach on elite athlete development. Additionally, this review provides practical suggestions and guidelines to coach developers and coach practitioners to develop such psychosocial behaviors using constructivist learning theories in relation to reflection, stories, mentorships, and internships.

Biblical Animality after Jacques Derrida engages with the role of animals in the Bible. Recently, questions have been raised about the assumption that humans are superior to animals. In critiquing the boundary between humans and animals, the philosopher Jacques Derrida is at the forefront of this debate. Often, the Bible is seen as an origin-point for the belief in human superiority. According to Genesis, humans are supposedly `made in God's image' while animals are not. In this book I challenge this (...) view. Building on Derrida, I bring to light significant moments where the lines between god, human, and animal are ambiguous. A rich range of biblical texts are covered, from Noah as the first carnivorous man in Genesis 9 to the vision of clean and unclean animals in Acts 10, and from Daniel's political and apocalyptic animals to Revelation's beasts. (shrink)

What could it mean to write of a politics and art to come? A politics and art in terms of what remains open, imperfect and always incomplete. What sort of politics will be under scrutiny here, a politics that refuses the pragmatic specificity of present situations? And what kind of art are we referring to, one that would be endlessly deferred, always unfinished and resistant to both communication and consumption?

This paper offers an exploration and interpretation of Robert M. Pirsig’s key term ‘Quality’; the notion of a pre-intellectual moment that he suggests exists between the thing in itself and rationalisation. I have followed two traces of ‘Quality’ in search of a Pirsigian aesthetic. Firstly, a metaphysical trace, which investigates the pre-intellectual moment in relation to the writings of Plato, Schopenhauer, Schelling, Heidegger and Derrida. Secondly, I have pursued a mystical trace, which attempts to get back behind Maya to the (...) universal poetic energy or ‘Quality’ by dissolving the eight veils that obscure the work of art. Finally, I have put forward a concept of the Fake as a guard against the complete rejection of rationality that leads only to ignorance and credulousness. I suggest that through the Fake, it is possible to acknowledge rationally that which is beyond our rational capability. (shrink)

This paper presents an alternative reading of Gorgias’ “On What is Not, or On Nature” that locates the sophist’s ‘eristic logic’ as a paradox disguised as wisdom and wisdom disguised as a paradox. In its critique of Heideggerian ontology, this papers ‘soph-eristic’ approach attempts to de-necessitate ontology, the theory of ‘is-ness’, into an untenable position and in turn deactivate the ontological argument between being and what is not.

As the centenary of the birth of Iris Murdoch approaches, re-appraisals of her literary work, which continues to divide critical opinion, seem due. This article posits that re-reading her novels in rapprochement with the writings of the group of fourth-century theologians known as the 'Cappadocian Fathers' reveals a 'passion for passionlessness' within the Murdochian corpus which has hitherto been little explored, and affords the possibility of a soteriological 'embrace' between these very discrete conversation partners.

I invite conference attendees to a discussion of ideas presented in a ‘graphic paper’ addressing themes of emergence between wholes and parts as these relate to our comprehension of what the world must be like for our understanding of it to make sense. The comic book form is used in the paper for its inherent emergent qualities. The relationship between images, dialogue, panels, gutters, page composition and narrative elements, holistically make this form archetypal in addressing the themes of the paper (...) and the conference. The challenge of the graphic paper, which explores bronze as a metaphor in defining the holistic properties that emerge from the joining of tin and copper, is to assess the consequences of synthesising the ideas of emergence in the writings of both Deleuze and Jung. In Deleuze’s collaboration with Felix Guattari, their writing points to the emergent properties within art as containing the ability to reterritorialize our relations with the world. ‘What defines the territory is the emergence of matters of expression …Can this becoming, this emergence, be called art?’ And in Jung’s formation of the Transcendent Function ‘which creates a transition from one attitude to another’ as the engine of individuation, where a third thing emerges from this process, ‘a changed situation’, ‘a new attitude’, through a dialogue between conscious and unconscious. Alongside Jung and Deleuze the graphic paper will add to this crucible, ideas from Critical Realist Roy Bhaskar and Assemblage theorist Manuel DeLanda Philosophy and simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason as both of these thinkers present ways of appreciating ‘generative mechanisms’ as a way of adding to our understanding of reality without ever claiming to have knowledge of things in themselves Critique of Pure Reason. The claim of the graphic paper is that these four Realist thinkers present a movement beyond the constraints of positivism’s ‘epistemic fallacy’, postmodernism’s solipsistic ‘linguistic turn’, and clears a path for what Robert M. Pirsig terms Dynamic Quality, the pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality. (shrink)

Since the 1960’s, somatic approaches in dance education have flourished. Williamson and many others have identified its roots in various movement practices influenced by Eastern philosophy. My research highlights how the concept of meditation is embedded in various dance scenarios, which emerge upon the basis of somatic approaches to dance, and bring forth the notion of altered mental states during such scenarios. I incorporate Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow theory as a guiding concept to solidify and outline these altered mental states as (...) a phenomenon, which has been explored widely in various contexts such as cognitive psychology. (shrink)

The present study assessed concordance between child reported and adult observed strategies to depict single and mixed emotion in the same human figure drawings. 205 children aged 6 years 2 months to 8 year 3 months formed two age groups across two conditions drawing either themselves or another child. They heard vignettes designed to elicit single and mixed emotion and drew a baseline drawing, counterbalanced happy and sad, and a mixed emotion drawing. Categories of children’s verbal reports and adults’ observations (...) were similar with some variation of use by condition, age group and emotion type. Mixed emotion strategies were more similar to those observed and reported in happy drawings. Findings are discussed in relation to a framework theory of art and social display rules. (shrink)

Critical reading of Grant Morrison's Animal Man.

This thesis offers a critical discussion of Robert M. Pirsig's 'metaphysics of Quality', based upon his two written works, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila. Discussion is pursued through a narrative style loosely modelled on Pirsig's literary contemplation of composition and Quality, but also with an emphasis on the form of a Platonic dialogue, albeit from a Postmodern perspective. The issues raised in the thesis focus upon an examination of Pirsig's conception of Quality in the light of (...) philosophical histories and Deconstruction and include a detailed discussion of whether all forms of writing are, by definition, both creative and rhetorical. Investigation is also made into elements of Zen Buddhism and Taoism in relation to Quality and Post-Structuralism. I analyse Pirsig's use of specific terms such as 'The Platypus' ; the 'Church of Reason', 'Care' and the 'ghost of rationality'. I also examine Pirsig's attempts to disseminate binary oppositions such as Literature/Philosophy, Classic/Romantic and Subject/Object. The thesis concludes by discussing, with the personifications of the 'ghosts of rationality', the merits of Pirsig's suggestion that everything in the universe is an ethical activity. (shrink)

According to Shackley, the motivation of most visitors to cathedral is the search for heterotopia, which is defined as a sense of timelessness and spirituality. Shackley goes on to argue that this search for heterotopia is a conscious, even if sometimes not articulated, attempt by visitors to connect to an unchanging and transcendental space that provides spiritual meaning in a life of transient and ephemeral values. Shackley proposes that visitors to cathedrals recognise them as sacred space and are influenced by (...) them, even if they cannot articulate or recognise that effect. This paper explores the idea that many visitors to sacred sites and cathedrals in particular, are motivated to do so by a search of spirituality, but that this search is acting as a subconscious, unspoken motivation, which may be hidden by more rational motivations such as curiosity, a desire to learn, or an interest in history and architecture. This paper argues that although more than a third of visitors to Chichester Cathedral are motivated by a search for spirituality or heterotopia as described by Shackley, their motivation is often not the result of a conscious decision, but instead appears to be the result of a subconscious motivation. This finding also suggests that a significant proportion of the tourists that, according to Sharpley and Sundaran, would claim to be motivated by curiosity or a desire to learn when visiting sacred or pilgrimage sites, may actually be subconsciously seeking some sense of spiritual experience or fulfilment. This proposition is based on a comparison between what visitors to Chichester Cathedral articulated as their primary motivation to visit the site, and those aspects that they found more satisfying from their visit, as well as the adjectives used to describe the Cathedral after their visit. This theory of subconscious motivation is developed from research on place meaning by Young and on consumer narratives of cathedral visitors by Voase, and suggests that place meanings and personal narratives for cathedrals are socially constructed and attributed to the place according to the visitor’s motivations. In this case, place meaning is acting as a mechanism to create intrinsic benefits that satisfy the visitor’s motivational needs, with this process operating at an individual, subconscious level. Thus, this paper concludes that a significant proportion of the non-religious visitors to cathedrals who argue that their motivations do not include the expectation of finding a sense of spirituality are justifying the benefits derived from visiting these sites by creating place meanings that have a spiritual dimension attached to it. This spiritual dimension arises from the subconscious acceptance of, and the associated behaviour connected to, the sanctity of space that visitors attach to the place. (shrink)

The claim of accelerationism is to a dynamism that can break the stasis of the present. In classical accelerationism – the work of Nick Land – this dynamism was located in the fettered forces of capitalist deterritorialization, which had been unlocked and realized in a virtual future. In the retooled forms of contemporary accelerationism dynamism is located in the epistemological possibilities of rational inhumanism, Promethean politics of maximal mastery, and sociotechnological hegemony. I dispute that this accelerationism can truly grasp the (...) present moment. Poised between images of past encrypted dynamisms and future realized dynamisms the present moment is missing. This occlusion detaches claims of epistemic acceleration from any referent. Contemporary accelerationism cannot grasp the political and technical compositions of capital, including how the so-called “forces of production” are bound-up with “relations of production” and so “moulded” by capitalism. While true to a certain Marx, the resulting exaltation of a metaphysics of forces is nothing but an exultation without an existent object. (shrink)

The contemporary theoretical moment is dominated by "affirmationism," as the affirming of a superior economy of excess that can inscribe and rupture any actual economy. This article reconstructs and critiques this affirmationism through an analysis of how it subordinates negativity as trapped within a restricted economy, and insists on a "savage negativity" that escapes all relation. I do so by retracing the core features of affirmationism and particularly its turn to the forces of creativity and play, figured through literature, posed (...) against the "labor of the negative." Probing this downgrading of "labor," as a result of the collapse of worker’s identity, I suggest that it results in a fatal detachment of negativity from any political or social instantiation. Instead, the return to negativity must be a return to the possible relational forms of negativity that attend to the impossibility of labor within capitalism. (shrink)

Contemporary theorizations of strategies of resistance and revolution often turn on affirming the concepts of speed and saturation. I want to critically consider these claims by returning to the work of Paul Virilio from the 1970s and contemporary “communization theory”. These theorizations stress the emptying-out of traditional worker’s identity and the need to re-invent forms of resistance and revolution that can address this challenge. My aim is to assess how both engage with the problem of acceleration, and particularly the relation (...) of resistance to forms of contemporary military power. I will argue that strategies of acceleration find themselves in fraught convergence with both military and capitalist practice. (shrink)

This article is an analysis of the work of the French intellectual Georges Bataille and its implications for interrogating the limits of therapy. One of the central concepts of Bataille’s thought is transgression and the destabilizing effects of transgression on any concept of the limit. I explore this thinking through an analysis of Bataille’s personal and theoretical relationship to psychoanalysis. Bataille’s radicalization of psychoanalysis is then pursued through his use of mythic representations of the ‘shattered subject’. These models of the (...) shattered subject offer an interrogation of some of the theoretical and practical limits of therapy, particularly when it is centred on the individual. Drawing on these models it is then argued that Bataille offers a new ethics of abjection, which proposes that we must interrogate the subject in terms of what our culture regards as ‘waste’. Comparison is made between Bataille’s thought and that of Jacques Lacan, and it is argued that Bataille offers a potential radicalization of Lacan’s concept of the Real and his ‘ethics of psychoanalysis’. The limits of Bataille’s own writing are critically interrogated, drawing on the readings of his work by Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. (shrink)

The French philosopher Alain Badiou is one of a number of contemporary theorists whose work has been identified has a source for postanarchism. This essay questions that identificatoin by focusing on Badiou's sustained criticism of anarchist and libertarian currents for thier failure to engage fully with the difficulties of political power, and in particular their failure to break with capitalist and statist political forms. Although problematic, these criticisms converge with existing debates in the 'movement of movements', which have started to (...) address the difficulty of finding egalitarian forms of practice to sustain the movement. These debates lead us towards the often elided problem of the relationship between postanarchist theory and anarchist practice. (shrink)