Stephen Bush
Brown University, Religious Studies, Faculty Member
- Theory of Religion, Religious Studies, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Religious Ethics, Pragmatism, Philosophy Of Religion, and 32 moreReligion and Politics, Political Theory, Hermeneutics, William James, Georges Bataille, Secularism, Democratic Theory, Mysticism, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Clifford Geertz, Virtue Ethics, Walt Whitman, Ecstasy, Ethics, Moral Theology, Christian Ethics, Just War, Jean-Luc Nancy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Action, History of Philosophy of Science, Émmanuel Lévinas, Martin Buber, Luce Irigaray, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Art Theory, Art Theory and Criticism, Art Theory and Politics, Aesthetics and Theory of Arts, Surrealism, and Iris Murdochedit
- Stephen S. Bush is an associate professor of religious studies at Brown University. His interests broadly are in theo... moreStephen S. Bush is an associate professor of religious studies at Brown University. His interests broadly are in theory of religion, philosophy of religion, and religious ethics.
His first book, Visions of Religion, integrates three major understandings of religion: religion as a matter of experience, of symbolic meaning, and of social and political power. His second book project, William James on Democratic Individuality, investigates the political theory of this American philosopher.
He has published essays in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of Religion, Journal of Religious Ethics, Soundings, Religious Studies, and Philosophical Review.edit
Review of Nick Cave's MASS MoCA exhibition, Until.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson and contemporary sculptor Ashwini Bhat on the ethics of the self.
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William James (1842-1910) argued for a philosophy of democracy and pluralism that advocates individual and collective responsibility for our social arrangements, our morality, and our religion. In James’s view, democracy resides first and... more
William James (1842-1910) argued for a philosophy of democracy and pluralism that advocates individual and collective responsibility for our social arrangements, our morality, and our religion. In James’s view, democracy resides first and foremost not in governmental institutions or in procedures such as voting, but rather in the characteristics of individuals, and in qualities of mind and conduct. It is a philosophy for social change, counselling action and hope despite the manifold challenges facing democratic politics, and these issues still resonate strongly today. In this book, Stephen S. Bush explores how these themes connect to James’s philosophy of religion, his moral thought, his epistemology, his psychology, and his metaphysics. His fresh and original study highlights the relevance of James’s thought to modern debates, and will appeal to scholars and students of moral and political philosophy.
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William James and Ralph Waldo Emerson are both committed individualists. However, in what do their individualisms consist and to what degree do they resemble each other? This essay demonstrates that James's individualism is strikingly... more
William James and Ralph Waldo Emerson are both committed individualists. However, in what do their individualisms consist and to what degree do they resemble each other? This essay demonstrates that James's individualism is strikingly similar to Emerson's. By taking James's own understanding of Emerson's philosophy as a touchstone, I argue that both see individualism to consist principally in self-reliance, receptivity, and vocation. Putting these two figures' understandings of individualism in comparison illuminates under-appreciated aspects of each figure, for example, the political implications of their individualism, the way that their religious individuality is politically engaged, and the importance of exemplarity to the politics and ethics of both of them.
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After a long period of neglect, William James’s political philosophy has been receiving significant attention in the past two decades. For the most part, however, those interested in his political thought do not attend to his philosophy... more
After a long period of neglect, William James’s political philosophy has been receiving significant attention in the past two decades. For the most part, however, those interested in his political thought do not attend to his philosophy of religion and vice versa. In this article, I argue that we can understand the individualism that James famously promotes in Varieties of Religious Experience as very much a political ideal. The sort of religious individuality that James endorses does not abjure social responsibility but rather involves an activist commitment to improve religious and societal institutions.
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According to one interpretation of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, the film is about Bess McNeill’s sacrificial love for her husband Jan. Bess’s violent death is the supreme expression of that love. According to an alternative... more
According to one interpretation of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, the film is about Bess McNeill’s sacrificial love for her husband Jan. Bess’s violent death is the supreme expression of that love. According to an alternative interpretation, informed by Georges Bataille, the role of violence in the film is to bring the viewer to an experience of commonality with Bess, but also an acknowledgment of the viewer’s own cruel fascination with the spectacle of violence. The two interpretations are in tension, revealing shortcomings in von Trier’s treatment of violence, but also in Bataille’s.
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Of those who deny that it is ever appropriate to torture, even in ticking time bomb scenarios, many appeal to notions like the sacredness of the human person to explain their position. In this article I argue that the sacred does not... more
Of those who deny that it is ever appropriate to torture, even in ticking time bomb scenarios, many appeal to notions like the sacredness of the human person to explain their position. In this article I argue that the sacred does not contribute decisively to resolving the debates about torture in ticking time bomb scenarios. However, the sacred is significant for one important facet of the contemporary problem of torture: the essential role of the populace's attitudes toward torture in ensuring that the prohibition against torture is enforced.
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Moral horror is an extreme emotional response to that which violates things we regard as sacred. In Robert Merrihew Adams's view, horror is a response to badness and not to wrongness, and so one could properly regard some actions as... more
Moral horror is an extreme emotional response to that which violates things we regard as sacred. In Robert Merrihew Adams's view, horror is a response to badness and not to wrongness, and so one could properly regard some actions as horrible but not wrong. In contrast, I argue that horror, when directed toward actions, is only appropriate for wrong actions. The reason is that horror involves moral disgust, and agents who committed a horrible action would have self-disgust, that is, they would be repulsive to themselves. I argue, with reference to killing in combat and in self-defense, that those who have done no wrong should not be in such a state.
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“Searching for symbolic meanings,” Talal Asad says, “is not the name of my game.” In putting things like this, Asad leads us to believe that the approach to the study of religion he favors, which focuses on social power, is at odds with... more
“Searching for symbolic meanings,” Talal Asad says, “is not the name of my game.” In putting things like this, Asad leads us to believe that the approach to the study of religion he favors, which focuses on social power, is at odds with the approach Clifford Geertz advances, which focuses on the interpretation of symbolic meaning. However, for a particular action or pattern of behavior to affect social power structures, it must possess symbolic meaning. So the social power approach and the interpretive approach are not as different as some of their respective advocates indicate.
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In this reply to Kent Brintnall's response to my essay on Georges Bataille and the ethics of ecstasy, I explore two primary questions: whether instrumentalization is inherently violent and non-instrumentalization is inherently... more
In this reply to Kent Brintnall's response to my essay on Georges Bataille and the ethics of ecstasy, I explore two primary questions: whether instrumentalization is inherently violent and non-instrumentalization is inherently non-violent, and whether there is a way to intervene in the world that avoids both “apathetic disengagement” and domination. I endorse the view that instrumentalization can be good as well as bad, and I suggest that it is possible to strive to intervene in the world without striving to master it. I make reference to Sarah Coakley as a Christian theologian who advances particular practices that aim for non-dominating intervention in theworld.
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The constructivist position, that mystical experiences are determined by the experiencer's cultural context, is now more prevalent among scholars of religion than the perennialist position, which maintains that mystical experiences have a... more
The constructivist position, that mystical experiences are determined by the experiencer's cultural context, is now more prevalent among scholars of religion than the perennialist position, which maintains that mystical experiences have a common core that is cross-culturally universal. In large part, this is due to the efforts of Wayne Proudfoot in his widely accepted book, Religious Experience. In this article, I identify some significant unresolved issues in Proudfoot's defence of constructivism. My aim is not to defend perennialism, but to specify some objections to the constructivist thesis that constructivists need to address more adequately.
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Georges Bataille agrees with numerous Christian mystics that there is ethical and religious value in meditating upon, and having ecstatic episodes in response to, imagery of violent death. For Christians, the crucified Christ is the focus... more
Georges Bataille agrees with numerous Christian mystics that there is ethical and religious value in meditating upon, and having ecstatic episodes in response to, imagery of violent death. For Christians, the crucified Christ is the focus of contemplative efforts. Bataille employs photographic imagery of a more-recent victim of torture and execution. In this essay, while engaging with Amy Hollywood's interpretation of Bataille in Sensible Ecstasy, I show that, unlike the Christian mystics who influence him, Bataille strives to divorce himself from any moral authority external to the ecstatic episode itself. I argue that in his attempt to remove external authority he abandons the only resources that could possibly protect his mystical contemplation from engendering sadistic attitudes.