January 15-16, 2011
New York City

Conference paper proposals with a 200-word abstract and a short CV due by September 1, 2010, to David Pan at dtpan@uci.edu. (Mark subject line as “Telos conference proposal.”)

Conference Registration Fee: $145, which includes lunch and dinner on January 15.
If you have any questions about the conference, please contact us at telospress@aol.com. [source]

cordially invite you to the following event:
Stanley Hauerwas in Conversation with John Milbank & Luke Bretherton

to mark the publication of:
Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir
BY STANLEY HAUERWAS

on Monday 18th October 2010 from 5.30-7.00pm
at the Great Hall, Strand Campus, King’s College London
Get directions here

Demand is sure to be high and spaces are limited. Please ensure you RSVP before the 8th October 2010 to be added to the guest list.

Email anita@hymnsam.co.uk or telephone: 020 7776 7550.

Alberto Toscano will be launching ‘Fanaticism’ on Thursday 8 July, 6.45pm, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Toscano will address the key issues at the heart of his new book, and welcome discussion from attendees. For more information and to book tickets, please call +44 (0)20 7930 3647, or visit the ICA website:  http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=24949

About the book:

The idea of fanaticism as a deviant or extreme variant of an already irrational set of religious beliefs is today invoked by the West in order to demonize and psychologize any non-liberal politics. Alberto Toscano’s compelling and erudite counter-history explodes this accepted interpretation in exploring the critical role fanaticism played in forming modern politics and the liberal state. Tracing its development from the traumatic Peasants’ War of early sixteenth-century Germany, to contemporary Islamism, Toscano tears apart the sterile opposition of ‘reasonableness’ and fanaticism. Instead, in a radical new interpretation, he places the fanatic at the very heart of politics, arguing that historical and revolutionary transformations require a new understanding of its role. Showing how fanaticism results from the failure to formulate an adequate emancipatory politics, this illuminating history sheds new light on an idea that continues to dominate debates about faith and secularism.

About the author:

Alberto Toscano is a senior lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of The Theatre of Production, translator of Alain Badiou’s The Century and Logics of Worlds and co-editor of Alain Badiou’s Theoretical Writings and On Beckett. He has published numerous articles on contemporary philosophy, politics and social theory, and is an editor of Historical Materialism. More information can be found here: http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/staff/toscano

Download the flyer here.

‘The Summa Theologiae as Mystagogy? Thomas Aquinas and the Discipline of the Secret’
Speaker: Professor Peter M. Candler Jr.,

Professor Peter M. Candler Jr. is Associate Professor of Theology at Baylor University and author of Theology, Rhetoric, Manuduction or, Reading Scripture Together on the Path to God (link: UK | US)

Further information from Vivian Boland OP: vivian.boland@english.op.org / 01865 278407

Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire, 16-19 September 2010

Keynote speakers: Simon Conway Morris, Michael Northcott, John Rodwell, John Milbank, Simon Oliver, Alison Milbank, Margaret Barker

Call for Papers

Often today debates about our policy towards the environment are purely reactive to events or to the current perceived risk of climate change. In contrast, this conference jointly mounted by Southwell Minster, Southwell and Nottinghamshire Diocese, the University of Nottingham Theology Department Centre of Theology and Philosophy and Nottingham Trent University Department of Environmental Sciences brings together theologians, philosophers, scientists and cultural critics to a Norman cathedral and to the historic Brackenhurst estate in Sherwood Forest to explore the specifically theological resources that can be brought to bear on our relation to the natural world. We invite short contributions of 20 minutes on any of the following areas: theology or philosophy of nature, theology of creation, history of environmental ethics, the human relation to the natural world, local ecology and local culture, religion and folklore, different religious perspectives and particularly those of religions other than Christianity, the role of cultural productions such as poetry, music, architecture or film as theological responses or critiques, the Bible and ecology. Papers addressing Nottinghamshire itself and Sherwood Forest will also be welcomed.

Please submit a 250 word abstract of your paper to alison.milbank@nottingham.ac.uk or by post to Revd Canon Nigel Coates, The Minster Centre, Church Street, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, NG25  0HD by 1 July 2010.

“Did Darwin Kill God?”

by Dr Conor Cunningham
Assistant Director of the Centre for
Theology and Philosophy at
Nottingham University

At 7.00pm on Tuesday,
9th March 2010

Faraday Lecture Theatre A,
Faraday Building, Swansea University

Everyone is welcome and admission is free.

Download the flyer here and please distribute.

Philosophy

Power: Philosophical Approaches in European Thought

Dr Ruth Griffin, Dr Patrick O’Connor, Dr Neil Turnbull.

Thursday 18^th of February

Nottingham Trent University
George Eliot 219, Clifton Campus

10:00 – 16:15

All welcome

The purpose of the school is to examine and explore the place of Power in recent European Thought.  While the notion of power has a rich philosophical heritage ranging from the readings of Aristotle to Leibniz on to Foucault, it has been embraced with various degrees of intensity in recent developments in European thought.  It has been adopted to different degrees by poststructuralists, new forms of vitalism, Agamben, Hardt and Negri, as well as underpinning the collective political ontology of Badiou and Rancière.

The aim of the day school is to explore these issues and present different perspective on the reception, relevance and applicability of power for contemporary thought.

Programme:

10:00-11:00 Dr Neil Turnbull, Nottingham Trent University: “’Fascism and the Power of Nothing.”

11:00-12:00: Dr Maurizio Meloni, University of Nottingham, “Bare Life Naturalism: Science, Power, and Identities in a Neurobiological Era.”

12:00- 1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:00 Dr Keith Crome, Manchester Metropolitan University, “’Life, Death, Sex: Biopower in the History of Sexuality’.”

2:00-3:00 Dr Nina Power, University of Roehampton, “TBA: Feminism and Power.”

Coffee

3:15-4:15 Dr Ullrich Haase, Manchester Metropolitan University, ‘TBA: Nietzsche and Will to Power’.

Contact: Patrick O’Connor

This one-day conference is orientated around introducing Laruelle’s non-philosophy. It includes an accessible introduction to the project, a roundtable discussion with theologians and philosophers, and a keynote address by Laruelle that will detail the current direction of non-philosophy. We encourage MA and research students from across the humanities to attend and participate. The day’s events are free and open to the public and a light lunch will be provided. The event will take place in the University Staff Club on the University Park Campus (Number 8 on attached map of University Park campus). We ask that you register by emailing anthonypaul.smith@gmail.com so that we can provide the correct level of catering.

• Short Description of Laruelle’s Project and the One-day Conference
• Programme of the One-day Conference
• Poster of the Laruelle Event (please distribute)
• How to Find the University of Nottingham University Park Campus
• Map of University Park

François Laruelle’s Non-Philosophy:
Theology,Gnosticism, and Theory

A One-day Workshop

‘Principles of a Generic Ethics’ –
François Laruelle (Université de Paris X, Nanterre)

An Introduction to Non-Philosophy — Anthony Paul Smith
(translator of Laruelle’s Future Christ: A Lesson in Heresy)

Round-table discussion: Philip Goodchild, John Milbank, and John Mullarkey

Free and Open to the Public
Minimal Lunch Provided

Friday 5th March

10.45am-5pm
University Staff Club, Conference Suite
University Park
University of Nottingham
This event will be an introduction to the work of François Laruelle and we welcome MA and Research students from across the School of Humanities to attend.

Sponsored by the Department of Theology and Religious Studies
and the Centre of Theology and Philosophy

Please direct any enquiries to anthonypaul.smith@gmail.com

Please download the flyer here and distribute. More details about the day’s schedule to follow.

[Post updated to reflect new poster and location]

“Reformation, Counter-Reformation and the English Nation”

Wednesday 10 February 2010
5.30pm

“Reformation Unravelled?: Facts & Fictions”

Thursday 11th February 2010
5.30pm

Professor Eamon Duffy
Professor of the History of the Christian Religion, University of Cambridge

Lecture given at the University of Nottingham
Room A48
Sir Clive Granger
University Park

ADMISSION FREE NO TICKETS REQUIRED

Download the flyer here.

In partnership with the Telos Institute, Telos is launching a new annual essay prize competition, inviting graduate students and post-graduate researchers in the humanities to tell the world about their work.

The competition offers young scholars the opportunity to be published in one of the leading international interdisciplinary journals. The panel of judges, which includes the editorial board of Telos as well as outside judges, is looking for creative, fresh, and original contributions in the area of politics, philosophy, critical theory, theology, culture, and the arts. There is no specific question or theme.

The winning essay will be published in a regular issue of Telos in the course of 2011. The winner will be given a free annual subscription to the journal as well as a free copy of a book published by Telos Press of his or her choice.

The competition is open to MA and PhD students as well as post-graduate researchers who are affiliated with an internationally recognized higher education institution (university, institute, etc.).

The Rose on the Ash-Heap

Thursday 25th March 2010
1.30 pm to 5.30 pm

St. Ethelburga’s,
78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG

The Rose on the Ash-Heap is the epilogue from English People -Barfield’s ambitious unpublished novel of English life between the First and Second World Wars. At once fairy tale, societal critique, romance and apocalyptic vision, it discloses the redemptive powers of love and imagination. Written in the late 1920s, a time of widespread societal and economic instability,

Owen Barfield is one of the twentieth century’s most significant writers and philosophers. Barfield’s ideas and literary artistry influenced the thinking of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and won praise from many other leading literary figures of the century.

Preceding the performance there will be a series of lectures given by Owen A. Barfield (the only grandchild of Owen Barfield), Gary Lachman, and Simon Blaxland de Lange.

The flyer containing the full programme and schedule may be downloaded here.

Professor Joseph Prabhu

Monday, 25th January

4.00pm

A lecture at the Staff Club
on the University Park campus

Download a PDF of the flyer here.

The 2010 TELOS Conference

January 16, 2010
New York City

From Lifeworld to Biopolitics: Empire in the Age of Obama

In the context of a dramatic reorganization of the relationships among state, market, and society, the 2010 Telos Conference will turn its attention to competing accounts, both theoretical and empirical, of the new modalities of administration, domination, and power. Facing the authoritarian state and a politicized market, how does one “defend society”? Has the strong state and a repoliticization of society returned in the name of left populism in the United States? How does international power operate in new forms of empire? How will Obama’s foreign policy and the economic crisis affect the structure of global relations?

The conference will address the extension of politicized control into ever greater realms of social life. What theoretical tools are available? How can we trace the process historically? Classical Critical Theory of the mid-twentieth century described a “totally administered society” in which an elaborate bureaucracy combined with a “culture industry” in order to eliminate spontaneity. Yet some viewed the era of deregulation (and the paradigms of postmodernism) as a rollback of administration and homogeneity. Do we now face the return to the strong state and a repoliticization of society in the name of left populism in the United States? Or has it been the transition from the old mass media to the Internet that has reshaped the dynamic of politics and culture?

Meanwhile, the brief moment of a presumed single superpower and unilateralism is shading into an international disorder of multiple power conflicts among strong states, no longer confronted with human rights expectations or a democratization agenda. The resurgent control of society has taken on global proportions: China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela. How does international power operate in new forms of empire? Have “military-industrial complexes” been replaced by cultural hegemonies, defined by the spread of languages and religions? Do developments such as political Islam or Chinese nationalism indicate that “society” has been the hidden driver of state power all along? What about the shared “liberal” and “realistic” assumption that economic liberalization will produce political opening and democratization? Has state capitalism in the East responded better to the global economic crisis than market capitalism in the West?

Conference Registration Fee: $115, which includes a one-year subscription to Telos. For current holders of individual subscriptions to Telos, the registration fee is $55. Please add $50 to the registration fee if you will be joining us at the conference dinner. To register, visit us at www.telospress.com.

Click here to see more information on the location and directions.

Click here to view the full conference schedule.

“Analogy, Dialectic, and Divine Transcendence:
Between St. Thomas and Hegel”

William Desmond
The Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

Abstract:

Hegel is often attacked for a philosophy of rational totality, but frequently his critics share his commitment to immanence and nothing but immanence. Speculative dialectic vis-à-vis divine transcendence has significance beyond Hegel for our contemporary philosophical options, as well as our theological predilections. The (metaxological) reconsideration of analogy that will be offered here is not a retrospective glance at a supposedly exhausted tradition but suggests that analogy harbors promise for a renewed thinking of divine difference, after Hegel himself and after the deconstruction of Hegelian totality.

Thursday, January 28, 2010
7:30 p.m.
University of Dallas
Lynch Auditorium
Reception following in
Gorman Faculty Lounge
The Aquinas Lecture

Response by Robert E. Wood, University of Dallas

Also a Seminar Open to the Public

“Between System and Poetics: On the Practices of Philosophy”
Friday, January 29th 3:00 p.m., Gorman Faculty Lounge
Informal Student Discussion:
Thursday, January 28th
3:30 p.m.—4:30 p.m., Gorman Faculty Lounge

About the Aquinas Lecture Series:

The Aquinas lecture series, begun in 1983, is an annual event sponsored by the Department of Philosophy in which distinguished philosophers address contemporary topics in the spirit of Thomas Aquinas. The list of Aquinas lecturers includes William Wallace, Joseph Owens, John Caputo, Edmund Pellegrino, Robert Sokolowski, Kenneth Schmitz, Benedict Ashley, Ralph McInerny, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Wippel, Louis Dupré, Alfred Freddoso, and Norris Clarke.

Returning to the Church 2010

Valuing Theological Education

4-6 January 2010
St Stephen’s House, Oxford

Speakers include: John Milbank, Graham Ward, Alister McGrath, Benedict Viviano OP, Michael Northcott, Graham James, Stephen Platten. Click here for a full list of speakers.

Contact andrew.davison@theology.ox.ac.uk
For full details see: www.returningtothechurch.org.uk

Conference poster may be downloaded here.

Click here to register for the conference.

From the conference description:

The conference will fall into three sections. The first will consider the theology of education from a number of perspectives. We do not want to assume that we know what education means separate from consideration of the theological tradition. Then come two more practically focused parts: ministerial education, and lay education and catechesis.

The Church of England stands at a crossroads over ministerial education. Costs are rising, not least because of the government’s recent decision over ‘equivalent level qualifications’. This forces universities to charge far higher fees for a degree course when the student already holds a degree at that level. This applies to many ordinands. Alongside this, the current financial situation means that the Church has less to spend. Some dioceses may opt out of residential training. Alongside this there are many additional considerations, such as the balance of ‘theoretical’ and ‘practical’ disciplines, and the relation of initial to on-going training. We will consider these in the middle section.

It is important, however, to conflate theological education with ministerial education. It is always as preparation for the wider work of encouraging theological literacy in the Church at large. This is all the more important as the cultural climate grows increasingly antagonistic to Christianity. On the front line in Christian apologetics are lay people who understand the Faith.

Lay Theological Education stands at the heart of the Returning to the Church project. In the third section of the conference this year we will begin to consider some of the necessary components of a renewal of catechesis, including the role of ‘liturgical formation’ and the lessons that can be learned from programmes of instruction both old and new, from the catechesis of Cyril of Alexandria, to the Oxford Movement and on to the Alpha Course.

For information about the Symposium, please call 202-526-3799 or contact information@johnpaulii.edu. Registration ends Friday, November 20, 2009.

Speakers include David L. Schindler, D. C. Schindler, Conor Cunningham, Michael Hanby, Nicholas Healy, amongst others.

Please click here for more details.

“How to Prove the Existence of God: Some Remarks on Anselm’s Proslogion” by Dr Lydia Schumacher

Tuesday 24th November 4:00 pm

“Experience and Transcendence: A basic philosophical problem after Luhmann, Kierkegaard and German Early Romanticism” by Dr Johannes Hoff

Friday 11th December 4:00pm

For more information, download the event post here and please distribute.

Michael Mack, “Spinoza and Freud, or how to be mindful of the mind”

Anthony Paul Smith, “The Ethical Relation of Bodies: Thinking with Spinoza towards an Affective Ecology”

Please click on the thumbnails below to view the PDF posters for each event.

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