The Idol and Modernity in Nietzsche and Marion
Reply
Mat Messerschmidt
Ph.D. Candidate, The Committee on Social Thought
The Idol and Modernity in Nietzsche and Marion
Respondent: Xinyue Zhang
Ph.D. Student, Committee on Social Thought
This paper (this chapter) explores the meaning of modernity for Nietzsche, arguing that modernity is, for him, a crisis that involves a kind of physiological overload or overstimulation. The real catastrophe of modernity, however, lies not in this overload itself, but in the modern idols that serve to protect us against utter overwhelming. Referring to Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenological treatment of idolatry, I investigate the meaning of the word “idols” in the phrase “Twilight of the Idols,” arguing that the idol serves as a buffer against the event of Becoming, and that the last man is the individual who, through the idolatrous survival mechanisms of modernity, evades Becoming entirely, threatening to sever humanity from the source of its vitality permanently.
The paper may be accessed here.
Tuesday, February 8th, 12:30 PM, Swift 200
Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago.
The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or T
The Idol and Modernity in Nietzsche and Marion (Paper)
Rethinking Luther’s Political Theology
Link
Kristof Oltvai
PhD Student, Philosophy of Religions
Rethinking Luther’s Political Theology
The legacy of Martin Luther’s political theology is contested in the philosophy of religion. More contemporary voices like Žižek and Mjaaland have begun challenging the older, intensely critical readings of Engels, Adorno, and Fromm, but the former authors’ defenses of Luther are underdeveloped. This study aims to fill this lacuna and argues that Luther’s critiques of revolutionary prophetism go hand in hand with his challenge to Rome’s magisterial authority. Both, for the reformer, constitute forms of ‘subjectivism.’ The objective Word’s standing over against the congregation is what guarantees the latter as a site of deliberative rationality. In order to see why this is the case, however, we cannot look only at Luther’s explicitly political writings, but also to his rejection of memorialism in the Eucharistic controversy.
The paper may be accessed here.
Tuesday, January 25th, 12:30 PM, Swift 403
This workshop will focus on the pre-circulated paper and will be largely discussion-based. During the workshop, Kristof will present an expanded version of the first section (on Luther’s conception of the freedom of the conscience).
Hosted by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop at the University of Chicago.
The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or T
Rethinking Luther’s Political Theology (Paper)
Between Self and No-Self: Some Phenomenological Considerations
Friday, December 3rd – 4:30PM
Prof. David W. Johnson
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Boston College
Between Self and No-Self: Some Phenomenological Considerations
The Philosophy of Religions Workshop is pleased to host Prof. David W. Johnson of Boston College, a renowned scholar of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and modern Japanese philosophy. Prof. Johnson will be presenting an ongoing project he plans to give as a talk at a conference next year, the draft of which is attached below. The talk concerns the No-Self idea in Buddhist thought, attempting “to show how it may be possible
to reconcile the reality of the self with a particular interpretation of the no-self doctrine.”
Prof. Johnson will be presenting an abridged, extemporized version of the talk presented in the draft, and then leading a discussion on the issues at hand with the second half of our time. He is interested to hear especially from scholars of Buddhist philosophy who may be able to enrich and refine his engagement with those materials. Reading the draft (attached below) before the presentation and discussion is encouraged, but not necessary for attendance.
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or T
An Exegesis of the Absurd: Kierkegaard On Faith & Hegelian Philosophy
Erica Lavista
MAPH Student, University of Chicago
An Exegesis of the Absurd: Kierkegaard On Faith & Hegelian Philosophy
Friday, October 19th
Pizza and beverages will be provided.
Swift Hall Room 403
This workshop will focus on a pre-circulated paper and will be largely discussion-based.
Please contact tjneenan@uchicago.edu for the paper.
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or Tyler Neenan (tjneenan@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.
THE ONE AND THE OTHERS
Andrew Cutrofello
Professor, Loyola University Chicago
THE ONE AND THE OTHERS: AN ESSAY ON SPECULATIVE ANTINOMIANISM
This is a draft of the second chapter of a work in progress called “The One and the Others: An Essay on Speculative Antinomianism.” In the book Andrew Cutrofello develops a way of thinking about antinomies. The book is structured as a series of responses to the antinomies presented in Plato’s Parmenides. In this chapter, Cutrofello focuses on the antinomies Parmenides deduces from the hypothesis “If the One is.” He contrasts Graham Priest’s characterization of such antinomies as true contradictions with Dante’s characterization of Christian paradoxes as merely apparent contradictions.
Tuesday, October 12th, 1:30PM CT
Lunch will be provided.
Swift Hall Room 403
This workshop will focus on a pre-circulated paper (available here) and will be largely discussion-based.
Please contact tjneenan@uchicago.edu for the paper password.
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators John Marvin (johnmarvin@uchicago.edu) or Tyler Neenan (tjneenan@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.
Protected: THE ONE AND THE OTHERS: AN ESSAY ON SPECULATIVE ANTINOMIANISM [PAPER]
Book Launch & Reading Group: Apocalypse of Truth: Heideggerian Meditations
Please join the Philosophy of Religions Workshop on Wednesday, June 9th for a talk with translator Matthew J. Peterson (PhD Candidate, Divinity School) on Jean Vioulac’s Apocalypse of Truth: Heideggerian Meditations, released this month by the UChicago Press. The talk will be followed by a reading group discussion, which will simply be an opportunity for those who have read the book to discuss it with others in the workshop community. You are welcome to attend one or both events.
Book Launch & Reading Group
Apocalypse of Truth: Heideggerian Meditations
Wednesday, June 9th
4:00pm CT
Talk with translator Matthew J. Peterson
5:00pm CT
Reading group discussion
Virtual Event
RSVP to rrosenfeld@uchicago.edu for Zoom link to one or both sessions.
The book may be purchased through the Seminary Co-op Bookstore or other booksellers.
About the book: We inhabit a time of crisis—totalitarianism, environmental collapse, and the unquestioned rule of neoliberal capitalism. Philosopher Jean Vioulac is invested in and worried by all of this, but his main concern lies with how these phenomena all represent a crisis within—and a threat to—thinking itself. In his first book to be translated into English, Vioulac radicalizes Heidegger’s understanding of truth as disclosure through the notion of truth as apocalypse. This “apocalypse of truth” works as an unveiling that reveals both the finitude and mystery of truth, allowing a full confrontation with truth-as-absence. Engaging with Heidegger, Marx, and St. Paul, as well as contemporary figures including Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Žižek, Vioulac’s book presents a subtle, masterful exposition of his analysis before culminating in a powerful vision of “the abyss of the deity.” Here, Vioulac articulates a portrait of Christianity as a religion of mourning, waiting for a god who has already passed by, a form of ever-present eschatology whose end has always already taken place. With a preface by Jean-Luc Marion, Apocalypse of Truth presents a major contemporary French thinker to English-speaking audiences for the first time.
About the translator: Matthew Peterson is a doctoral candidate in the philosophy of religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Continental Philosophy Review and The Journal of Religion.
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Tyler Neenan (tjneenan@uchicago.edu) or Rebekah Rosenfeld (rrosenfeld@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.