Tuesday, 13 May 2008

St Paul and philosophy: register now!

If you’re lucky enough to be in Vancouver next month, then time is running out to register for the conference, St Paul’s Journeys into Philosophy, 4-6 June 2008, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

“Join us for a conference which explores the critical appropriations of Saint Paul by modern and contemporary Continental philosophers, including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Benjamin, Jacob Taubes, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, Slavoj Žižek, and others. An international group of philosophers, theologians, biblical scholars and literary theorists will present papers on a wide range of themes arising from this recent philosophical appropriation of Saint Paul. Plenary speakers include Stephen Fowl, Paul Griffiths, Travis Kroeker and J. Louis Martyn. There will also be presentations by Creston Davis, Neil Elliott, Paul Gooch, Douglas Harink, Chris Huebner, Mark Reasoner, Jeffrey Robbins, Gordon Zerbe, Jens Zimmerman and others.”

To register, visit the website or email Doug Harink.

1 Comment:

Anonymous said...

I find this topic quite bizarre.

We can study the philosophical development of real people such as Hegel, Nietzsche, Richard Rorty, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger and Zizek etc etc.

And yet what do we really know about "paul"?
Did anyone ever meet him?
Did he even write what is supposedly attributed to him?
Did he even exist?

Perhaps he is really just a fictional character in what is in essence a piece of religious fictional story-telling---that is the Bible. Just like Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita (Mahabharata) and Rama in the Ramayama.

And why, in an age when ever possible philosophical point of view that has ever been given is freely available to anyone with an internet connection, is "Paul" so special.

Remembering too, that the overwhelming majority of the people in the world arent even Christian.
So why does the "philosophy of paul" have a binding effect on these over 4 billion human beings?
Or even any relevance whatsoever?

My favourite discussion of the most profound ancient texts and their relevance to understanding what is happening now is the marvellous Comming Into Being by William Irwin Thompson.

Thompson is a true Renaissance Man of deep scholarship and learning, most of which was done outside of the academy, secular or so called "religious". And yet he was also at home in St John's Cathedral in New York where he used to lead deeply ecumenical colloquiums.

www.williamirwinthompson.com

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