This is the upcoming Centre of Theology and Philosophy conference called The Grandeur of Reason: Religion, Tradition and Universalism. If you're interested in attending and/or presenting, we are now accepting reservations for the conference as well as paper abstracts for panels. All the information you need is on the conference site, which contains the full conference description, location details, booking, call-for-papers, and paper abstract submissions.
From the University of Nottingham Podcast webpage:
Dr Angus Paddison and Dr Adrian Pabst
In this podcast we hear about a major conference at the University, based on a hotly debated book by Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger.
Experts from around the world are gathering to debate major questions arising from the book, chiefly the concept of Jesus as an historical figure, Christ of faith, or both.
More information is available here and here.
Click here to listen to the podcast [audio/mpeg, 13.6 MB, 14:27 mins]
The Centre of Theology and Philosophy, along with Eerdmans Press is happy to announce two forthcoming volumes in the Interventions series: Heidegger: A (Very) Critical Introduction, by Sean J. McGrath (forthcoming: 29 September,2008), and Žižek: A (Very) Critical Introduction, by Marcus Pound (forthcoming: 29 October, 2008).
Listed below are the blurbs that have arrived for the respective books:
"This informed and informative book is an admirably compact and clear introduction to the essentials of Heidegger's thought. It will be very helpful for the beginner, and for the more advanced reader it offers an honorable critical interpretation. McGrath exhibits a sharp sense for the often-recessed religious preoccupations of Heidegger: out of sight is not quite out of mind, which sometimes leads to convoluted results in Heidegger's expressed thought. For the theological reader this book offers an exemplary critical engagement, attuned to Heidegger's religious equivocality and what remains hidden in the Heideggerian unsaid."
- William Desmond, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
"Heidegger's entire life was an adventure in philosophy, from phenomenology to thought, focused on a distinction between ontological be and ontic being that he was never able to explain, but that he was also never able to let go of in his long explorations into what he called the metaphysical tradition. In this remarkably lucid introduction to a philosopher notorious not only for radicalizing and obfuscating philosophical questioning but also for bringing it back to this most radical question of being or not-being, McGrath uses both biographical and existential information and the writing of Heidegger himself, especially in its earlier stages, to illuminate where this preeminent philosopher of the twentieth century was coming from in his questioning and where he was trying to go. The life of Heidegger sheds light on his philosophy, just as his philosophy sheds light on his life, with all its existential ambiguities, which were as conservative as they were radical against the inauthentic and the technological in modern mass society. In the end we learn how or why Heidegger was unable to resolve these ambiguities in his own philosophy, especially in axiology and in theology, which were never entirely absent from his thinking, and why also McGrath will not, as Heideggerians do, settle for such nihilistic ambiguities, due to the finitizing of being in Heidegger, that affect the broader question of being as well as the question of life for the human being or for the ever-present Dasein."
- Oliva Blanchette, Boston College
"With clarity and humor, and in wonderfully short compass, Marcus Pound introduces the thought of not only Slavoj Žižek but also his guru, Jacques Lacan. Pound finds in these masters of inversion a profound anti-theology that only needs to become more theological—more orthodox—in order to work, to rid us of complacency. This is a book for those new to Žižek and for those who, knowing him already, want to know him newly—as the theologian he might almost be. It's as enjoyable as reading Žižek himself."
Gerard Loughlin, Durham University
"Slavoj Žižek's work, always iconoclastic, has since 1997 embraced the seemingly scandalous project of a materialist theology. Marcus Pound's new book is a long-called-for response, from within the field of theology, that takes Žižek's theological turn seriously, testing it against its sources, and situating it within wider theological debates. In doing so, Pound achieves a very searching examination of Žižek's oeuvre, significantly recasting the reception of Žižek's work. Pound's theological perspective also allows him to pose searching questions about what he provocatively calls Žižek's 'politics of abandonment' and about the wider situation of the post-Enlightenment Left today."
- Matthew Sharpe, author of Žižek: A Little Piece of the Real
The Centre of Theology and Philosophy, along with Eerdmans Press, is proud to announce the release of the first title in the Interventions series entitled Naturalism. Written by Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro, the authors "examine naturalism philosophically, evaluating its strengths and weaknesses. Whereas most other books on naturalism are written for professional philosophers alone, this one is aimed primarily at a college-educated audience interested in learning about this pervasive worldview."
Reviews:
"This compact study makes a significant contribution to the question of whether, in an age of science, reasonable people need to resign themselves to a naturalistic understanding of the world. Is the intellectually respected assumption that 'nature is all there is' intellectually coherent? In this 'intervention' Goetz and Taliaferro provide a readable, critical response to this important question."
- John F. Haught, Georgetown University
"Demonstrates with succinctness, brilliance, and precision that modern Anglo-Saxon naturalists are not rationalists but . . . are, in fact, the enemies of reason, which can only have any reality if the physical world has a spiritual, rational source."
- John Milbank, University of Nottingham
"More than a few people seem to regard it as a mark of sophistication to hold that nothing exists that transcends the natural order. But, as Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro show in their splendid new book, 'naturalism' is anything but a sophisticated view of reality. Under rigorous philosophical scrutiny, it isn't even a plausible one. . . . Patiently, gently, but in the end decisively, Goetz and Taliaferro demolish the dogmas of naturalism."
- Robert P. George, Princeton University
"This little gem of a book is a bold intervention in current discussions of naturalism that dominate philosophy and cognitive science. Unlike so many others, it is not just a book written to make theists comfortably smug in the face of naturalist critiques. It is unabashedly directed to naturalists as well and seeks to engage them on their turf and on their terms. It should be required reading not only for theologians who sense an obligation to engage the broader cultural milieu, but also naturalists willing to relinquish dogmatism and actually listen. The book well fulfills its function as a 'guide'--and more."
- James K.A. Smith, Calvin College
"The clearest and most penetrating exposition and critique of naturalism anywhere. In accessible, nontechnical language and brevity of style, the authors have managed to identify important versions of naturalism and expose the Achilles' heel of each. In a day when theologians and Christian leaders feel bullied by scientific naturalism, this book is a must-read."
- J. P. Moreland, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
"Taliaferro and Goetz have written a brilliant book! These veteran philosophers represent naturalism fairly, both allowing its spokespersons to speak for themselves and accurately interpreting their views. Yet the authors' criticisms of naturalism and their defense of theism are trenchant and insightful. Superbly done!"
- Paul Copan, Palm Beach Atlantic University
The Pope and Jesus of Nazareth
19 and 20 June 2008
The University of Nottingham, Nottingham
Supported by the British Academy
Click below for full details:
À quoi servent les images ? Peuvent-elles nous faire accé der à l'essentiel ?
Olivier Boulnois, Au-delà de l'image, Une archéologie du visuel au Moyen Age, Ve-XVIe siè cle, Des Travaux/ Seuil, Paris, 2008, 496 p., + 8p. d'illustrations.
Cliquez ici pour voir la couverture du livre.
Ruth Gledhill has written an article in the Times Online which mentions the Centre and Radical Orthodoxy.
More news... Subscribe: 
OPENING OF NEW CULTURAL CENTRE, 1st September 2005.
On The 1st September 2005, the Bishop of Limerick, The Right Reverend Donal Murray, a member of the Pontifical
Council for Culture, officially opened The Centre of Theology and Philosophy. Cardinal Paul Poupard, President of
the Council, who gave very generous and kind support to the initiative, encouraged this arrangement. The opening
coincided with the Centre’s first annual conference, which was on the theme of Transcendence and Phenomenology.
Over 150 delegates from more than 19 nations were present: Philosophers, Theologians, Students, Professors,
Lay-people and Priests. Also in attendance was Monsignor Javier Martinez, Archbishop of Granada, Spain, who
said Grace at the conference banquet.
Bishop Murray’s speech signalled in very strong and clear terms the concerns and aims that the new Cultural
Centre shared with the Pontifical Council. Speaking about Cardinal Poupard, Bishop Donal put it thus: ‘In his work as
President of the Pontifical Council he has sought for almost a quarter of a century to ensure that the Church is involved
in and at the forefront of intellectual debates and cultural dialogues. He sees the establishment of Cultural Centres
as a particularly fruitful way of advancing that goal’. For this reason, Bishop Murray continued, ‘The establishment
of this Centre of Theology and Philosophy is particularly welcome…….because the Gospel is meant to take root in and
illuminate every aspect of the life of individuals and of society. But the dialogue of philosophy and theology is
of crucial, irreplaceable importance’.
The Centre’s aims certainly resonate with The Pontifical Council’s concerns, for its main aim is to take as its starting-point
the truth of the Gospel; and in so doing, to fearlessly, yet with due humility, carry out rigorous research covering all aspects
of lived life. And it was under the finality of this intention, that the theme of the first conference was phenomenology, which
takes as its object the validity of the everyday. Religion is obviously a phenomenon of the everyday, and as a result of the
methods of phenomenology there has been a quite dramatic ‘turn to religion’, so-called, within this form of philosophy. Here
the names of Jean-Louis Chrétien, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Marion, Paul Ricœur, Michel Henry, Stanislas Breton, and
Jean-Yves Lacoste, to mention but a few, are all very important.
A major concern of the Centre is the dissolution of levels of existence- melting real difference into the homogenous
language of bare matter, for instance. A move encouraged by the adoption of the method of the empirical sciences as
the sole model for philosophy, and indeed of truth itself, which does science itself a grave disservice. The move to
reduce the complicated to the simple is of course motivated by the idea that existence is exhausted within the
particular sciences: biology, chemistry, and physics. Indeed taking biology as an example, the problem arises
when we realise that it must either bracket, or presume that something exists, and then investigate it. But
it is this presumption that is the point of contention. Indeed the father of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl,
makes just this point in his Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften, where he argues that the specialists
in the sciences do not get past the assumptions that they use. Here, the rich form of being - of existence
is being lost, and the profundity of truth deflated.
But there is, then, the question that without a ‘thicker’ (to use Gilbert Ryle’s term) understanding of existence, it is quite
difficult to see how biology will not, in the end, be understood as a folk-science. And in being so, find itself translated
into the terms of chemistry, which in turn gives way to the language of physics, and so on. Such a predicament appears to
prohibit metaphysical questions altogether, and as result, ethics, for example, is, then, merely a matter of sociology,
itself being a folk-discourse. Yet it is arguable that such a significant lacuna, leaves the popular imagination open
to the appeal of colourful, but misleading stories of ‘selfish genes’, and so on; these, then, become our ersatz
metaphysics. Against this, the research programme of the Centre is motivated by the possibility that Étienne
Gilson may well be correct when he tells us that ‘Metaphysics buries its undertakers’, a burial we think
achievable in interdisciplinary terms.
Developing certain themes from this year’s conference, and expanding the work of the Centre, in line with the above concerns,
another conference is being held in Granada, Spain-15th-18th September 2006. The theme of this meeting is—Belief and Metaphysics.
Invited speakers extend across the disciplines, but also across intellectual traditions: For example, philosophers, both Analytic
and Continental, Thomists, and so on. The criterion has been a strong interest in the effort to forge a philosophical and
theological synthesis beyond the extremes of scientistic materialism and reductionism, on the one hand, and Post-modernism,
deconstructionism, and cultural relativism, on the other. Motivated by the real hope of re-presenting the depths and wonder
of existence evident in the lives we actually live, rather than the philosophies we contrive to propagate.
Speakers at this year’s conference include:
Oliva Blanchette, Louis Dupré, Mark D Jordan, Merold Westphal, David Cooper, John Cottingham, E.J Lowe, Rudi te Velde,
David Bentley Hart, Ludger Honnefelder, David Burrell, Massimo Borghesi, Hent de Vries, Simon Conway-Morris, Charles Taliaferro, Michael Rea, and John Milbank.
The work of the Centre is being disseminated and given focus by two book series. The first of these is being published by
Blackwell, Oxford, and is called –Illuminations. This will publish major monographs in both theology and philosophy.
The second series will consist in shorter volumes on single topics. For example, we have volumes coming out on EVOLUTION,
NATURALISM, NOMINALISM, SUFFERING, RACE, TRINITY, SUICIDE, FOOD, ATHEISM, MEMORY, BEING, INFINITY, POWER, DECADENCE,
SPEAKING, PARTICPATION, and TIME, to offer an illustrative sample. This series is called: Interventions and it is
being published by Wm.B.Eerdmans. Those on the editorial advisory board include, among others:
Rowan Williams, Charles Taylor, William Desmond, Jean-Yves Lacoste, Mark D Jordan, and Rémi Brague.
As an offshoot, we are also publishing short, incisive texts on particular thinkers. For example:
Balthasar
A Very Critical Introduction.
We also have volumes on the theologian Stanley Hauerwas, and the philosopher Alain Badiou forthcoming.
Both series are inspired by what we might call ‘Catholic Humanism’. In other words, the series are endeavours to give
an account of all aspects of life, doing so from a broadly Christian point-of-view, but one mediated, or
informed by a number of disciplines, and indeed culture as a whole.
Dr Conor Cunningham,
Assistant Director,
Centre of Theology and Philosophy,
University of Nottingham, England
The Centre's Concerns:
‘Every doctrine which does not reach the one thing necessary, every separated philosophy, will remain deceived by false appearances. It will be a doctrine, it will not be Philosophy’, (Maurice Blondel, 1861-1949)
The COTP is a research-led institution organised at the interstices of theology and philosophy. It is founded on the conviction that these two disciplines cannot be adequately understood or further developed, save with reference to each other. This is true in historical terms, since we cannot comprehend our Western cultural legacy, unless we acknowledge the interaction of the Hebraic and Hellenic traditions. It is also true conceptually, since reasoning is not fully separable from faith and hope, or conceptual reflection from revelatory disclosure. The reverse also holds, in either case.
The Centre is concerned with:
- The historical interaction between theology and philosophy.
- The current relation between the two disciplines
- Attempts to overcome the analytic/ Continental divide in philosophy
- The question of the status of ‘metaphysics'. Is the term used equivocally? Is it now at an end? Or have 20th Century attempts to have a post-metaphysical philosophy themselves come to an end?
The Theology Department of the University of Nottingham, within which the COTP is situated, was awarded the top 5* A grade in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2001). Nottingham was one of only two theology Departments who submitted all its staff and was rated 5* A.
For all enquiries, please email Conor Cunningham:
To return to the Nottingham Theology Department:
www.nottingham.ac.uk/theology
