- Department of Religious Studies
201 Cohen Hall
University of Pennsylvania
249 S. 36th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Donovan Schaefer
University of Pennsylvania, Religious Studies, Faculty Member
- Syracuse University, Religion, Alumnusadd
- Affect Theory, Religion, Secularisms and Secularities, Material Religion, Science and Technology Studies, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and 24 moreScience and Religion, Animals and Animality, Feminist science and technology studies, American Religion, Queer Theory, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Globalization And Postcolonial Studies, Evolution, Atheism, Gender and Sexuality, Michel Foucault, Charles Darwin, Donna Haraway, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, Evolutionary Ethics, Cognitive Ethology, Material Feminism, Actor Network Theory, Film Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), History Of Emotions, and Religion and Politicsedit
Introduction: Cogency Theory: An Essay on Our Intellectual Affects Full book available at: https://www.dukeupress.edu/wild-experiment In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking... more
Introduction: Cogency Theory: An Essay on Our Intellectual Affects
Full book available at: https://www.dukeupress.edu/wild-experiment
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate. Drawing on science studies, philosophy, affect theory, secularism studies, psychology, and contemporary literary criticism, Schaefer reconceptualizes rationality as defined by affective processes at every level. He introduces the model of “cogency theory” to reconsider the relationship between evolutionary biology and secularism, examining mid-nineteenth-century Darwinian controversies, the 1925 Scopes Trial, and the New Atheist movement of the 2000s. Along the way, Schaefer reappraises a range of related issues, from secular architecture at Oxford to American eugenics to contemporary climate denialism. These case studies locate the intersection of thinking and feeling in the way scientific rationality balances excited discovery with anxious scrutiny, in the fascination of conspiracy theories, and in how racist feelings assume the mantle of rational objectivity. The fact that cognition is felt, Schaefer demonstrates, is both why science succeeds and why it fails. He concludes that science, secularism, atheism, and reason itself are not separate from feeling but comprehensively defined by it.
Full book available at: https://www.dukeupress.edu/wild-experiment
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate. Drawing on science studies, philosophy, affect theory, secularism studies, psychology, and contemporary literary criticism, Schaefer reconceptualizes rationality as defined by affective processes at every level. He introduces the model of “cogency theory” to reconsider the relationship between evolutionary biology and secularism, examining mid-nineteenth-century Darwinian controversies, the 1925 Scopes Trial, and the New Atheist movement of the 2000s. Along the way, Schaefer reappraises a range of related issues, from secular architecture at Oxford to American eugenics to contemporary climate denialism. These case studies locate the intersection of thinking and feeling in the way scientific rationality balances excited discovery with anxious scrutiny, in the fascination of conspiracy theories, and in how racist feelings assume the mantle of rational objectivity. The fact that cognition is felt, Schaefer demonstrates, is both why science succeeds and why it fails. He concludes that science, secularism, atheism, and reason itself are not separate from feeling but comprehensively defined by it.
Research Interests: Religion, Emotion, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy Of Religion, Atheism, and 15 moreContinental Philosophy, Conspiracy Theories, Science and Religion, Secularization, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Darwin, Affect (Cultural Theory), History of Science and Religion, Cognition and Emotion, Affect, Science Studies, Secularism, New Atheism, and Science and Technology Studies
Available at: https://www.dukeupress.edu/wild-experiment In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate. Drawing on science studies, philosophy, affect theory, secularism... more
Available at: https://www.dukeupress.edu/wild-experiment
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate. Drawing on science studies, philosophy, affect theory, secularism studies, psychology, and contemporary literary criticism, Schaefer reconceptualizes rationality as defined by affective processes at every level. He introduces the model of "cogency theory" to reconsider the relationship between evolutionary biology and secularism, examining mid-nineteenth-century Darwinian controversies, the 1925 Scopes Trial, and the New Atheist movement of the 2000s. Along the way, Schaefer reappraises a range of related issues, from secular architecture at Oxford to American eugenics to contemporary climate denialism. These case studies locate the intersection of thinking and feeling in the way scientific rationality balances excited discovery with anxious scrutiny, in the fascination of conspiracy theories, and in how racist feelings assume the mantle of rational objectivity. The fact that cognition is felt, Schaefer demonstrates, is both why science succeeds and why it fails. He concludes that science, secularism, atheism, and reason itself are not separate from feeling but comprehensively defined by it. "You know that jolt that arrives when everything clicks, when the pieces suddenly fit? At once heady and visceral, this experience of cogency-when lucidity emerges out of the messy thicket of experiment-is the focus of this book. From Darwinian science to conspiracy thinking to New Atheism to racialized cognition and more, Donovan O. Schaefer offers a lively account of how intellect and affect are thoroughly intertwined. Readers from several disciplines-religious studies, affect theory, critical science studies, and more-will feel themselves 'clicking' with surprise and delight."
In Wild Experiment, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the conventional wisdom that feeling and thinking are separate. Drawing on science studies, philosophy, affect theory, secularism studies, psychology, and contemporary literary criticism, Schaefer reconceptualizes rationality as defined by affective processes at every level. He introduces the model of "cogency theory" to reconsider the relationship between evolutionary biology and secularism, examining mid-nineteenth-century Darwinian controversies, the 1925 Scopes Trial, and the New Atheist movement of the 2000s. Along the way, Schaefer reappraises a range of related issues, from secular architecture at Oxford to American eugenics to contemporary climate denialism. These case studies locate the intersection of thinking and feeling in the way scientific rationality balances excited discovery with anxious scrutiny, in the fascination of conspiracy theories, and in how racist feelings assume the mantle of rational objectivity. The fact that cognition is felt, Schaefer demonstrates, is both why science succeeds and why it fails. He concludes that science, secularism, atheism, and reason itself are not separate from feeling but comprehensively defined by it. "You know that jolt that arrives when everything clicks, when the pieces suddenly fit? At once heady and visceral, this experience of cogency-when lucidity emerges out of the messy thicket of experiment-is the focus of this book. From Darwinian science to conspiracy thinking to New Atheism to racialized cognition and more, Donovan O. Schaefer offers a lively account of how intellect and affect are thoroughly intertwined. Readers from several disciplines-religious studies, affect theory, critical science studies, and more-will feel themselves 'clicking' with surprise and delight."
Research Interests: Religion, Emotion, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy Of Religion, Atheism, and 15 moreContinental Philosophy, Conspiracy Theories, Science and Religion, Secularization, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Darwin, Affect (Cultural Theory), History of Science and Religion, Cognition and Emotion, Affect, Science Studies, Secularism, New Atheism, and Science and Technology Studies
Cambridge University Press website: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108765343 Across the humanities, a set of interrelated concepts—excess, the virtual, becoming, the event—have gained purchase as analytical tools for thinking about the... more
Cambridge University Press website:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108765343
Across the humanities, a set of interrelated concepts—excess, the virtual, becoming, the event—have gained purchase as analytical tools for thinking about the field of power. Within affect theory, a “Deleuzian dialect” has been built around Gilles Deleuze’s concept of becoming, proposing that affect is best understood as a sort of stream of dynamic novelty, what has been called the “autonomy of affect.” This vocabulary is often justified and buttressed with reference to research in the life sciences.
The Evolution of Affect Theory provides a philosophical genealogy of the Deleuzian dialect of affect theory and makes an argument that the cluster of terms synonymous with becoming are workable as models of substance, but fail as a register of the analytics of power. As an alternative, this volume proposes reconsidering affect theory’s relationship with the life sciences and ultimately reimagining affect as animal rather than autonomous. This sets the stage for exploring two other dialects of affect theory: the Tomkins dialect and the phenomenological dialect, both of which emphasize emotion, embodiment, and diversity rather than becoming. Critics such as Ruth Leys have noticed some of the weaknesses in the Deleuzian dialect and sought to project them as a blanket criticism of all affect theory. This volume considers and responds to these criticisms.
By way of a case study, this volume concludes with a return to the work of Saba Mahmood, in particular her 2005 study of the women’s mosque movement in Cairo, The Politics of Piety. The volume reinterprets Mahmood’s conclusions about agency using Sara Ahmed’s notion of an affective economy.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108765343
Across the humanities, a set of interrelated concepts—excess, the virtual, becoming, the event—have gained purchase as analytical tools for thinking about the field of power. Within affect theory, a “Deleuzian dialect” has been built around Gilles Deleuze’s concept of becoming, proposing that affect is best understood as a sort of stream of dynamic novelty, what has been called the “autonomy of affect.” This vocabulary is often justified and buttressed with reference to research in the life sciences.
The Evolution of Affect Theory provides a philosophical genealogy of the Deleuzian dialect of affect theory and makes an argument that the cluster of terms synonymous with becoming are workable as models of substance, but fail as a register of the analytics of power. As an alternative, this volume proposes reconsidering affect theory’s relationship with the life sciences and ultimately reimagining affect as animal rather than autonomous. This sets the stage for exploring two other dialects of affect theory: the Tomkins dialect and the phenomenological dialect, both of which emphasize emotion, embodiment, and diversity rather than becoming. Critics such as Ruth Leys have noticed some of the weaknesses in the Deleuzian dialect and sought to project them as a blanket criticism of all affect theory. This volume considers and responds to these criticisms.
By way of a case study, this volume concludes with a return to the work of Saba Mahmood, in particular her 2005 study of the women’s mosque movement in Cairo, The Politics of Piety. The volume reinterprets Mahmood’s conclusions about agency using Sara Ahmed’s notion of an affective economy.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Emotion, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and 15 morePhilosophy of Science, Humanities, Political Theory, Queer Theory, Cultural Theory, History Of Emotions, Continental Philosophy, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Affect Theory, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Affect, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy
In Religious Affects Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and belief, proposing instead that it is primarily driven by affects. Drawing on affect theory, evolutionary biology, and... more
In Religious Affects Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and belief, proposing instead that it is primarily driven by affects. Drawing on affect theory, evolutionary biology, and poststructuralist theory, Schaefer builds on the recent materialist shift in religious studies to relocate religious practices in the affective realm—an insight that helps us better understand how religion is lived in conjunction with systems of power. To demonstrate religion's animality and how it works affectively, Schaefer turns to a series of case studies, including the documentary Jesus Camp and contemporary American Islamophobia. Placing affect theory in conversation with post-Darwinian evolutionary theory, Schaefer explores the extent to which nonhuman animals have the capacity to practice religion, linking human forms of religion and power through a new analysis of the chimpanzee waterfall dance as observed by Jane Goodall. In this compelling case for the use of affect theory in religious studies, Schaefer provides a new model for mapping relations between religion, politics, species, globalization, secularism, race, and ethics.
Research Interests: Religion, Evolutionary Biology, Philosophy Of Religion, Feminist Theory, Primatology, and 14 moreQueer Theory, Feminist Philosophy, History Of Emotions, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Science and Religion, Cognitive Science of Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Animals and Animality, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Feminist science and technology studies, and Religious Studies
In "Religious Affects" Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and belief, proposing instead that it is primarily driven by affects. Drawing on affect theory, evolutionary biology, and... more
In "Religious Affects" Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and belief, proposing instead that it is primarily driven by affects. Drawing on affect theory, evolutionary biology, and poststructuralist theory, Schaefer builds on the recent materialist shift in religious studies to relocate religious practices in the affective realm—an insight that helps us better understand how religion is lived in conjunction with systems of power. To demonstrate religion's animality and how it works affectively, Schaefer turns to a series of case studies, including the documentary film "Jesus Camp" and contemporary American Islamophobia. Placing affect theory in conversation with post-Darwinian evolutionary theory, Schaefer explores the extent to which nonhuman animals have the capacity to practice religion, linking human forms of religion and power through a new analysis of the chimpanzee waterfall dance as observed by Jane Goodall. In this compelling case for the use of affect theory in religious studies, Schaefer provides a new model for mapping relations between religion, politics, species, globalization, secularism, race, and ethics.
Read here: https://www.academia.edu/18041441/Religious_Affects_Animality_Evolution_and_Power_Duke_2015_
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Read here: https://www.academia.edu/18041441/Religious_Affects_Animality_Evolution_and_Power_Duke_2015_
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Research Interests: Religion, Evolutionary Biology, Philosophy Of Religion, Feminist Theory, Primatology, and 13 moreQueer Theory, Feminist Philosophy, History Of Emotions, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Cognitive Science of Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Animals and Animality, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Feminist science and technology studies, and Religious Studies
In "Religious Affects" Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and belief, proposing instead that it is primarily driven by affects. Drawing on affect theory, evolutionary biology, and... more
In "Religious Affects" Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and belief, proposing instead that it is primarily driven by affects. Drawing on affect theory, evolutionary biology, and poststructuralist theory, Schaefer builds on the recent materialist shift in religious studies to relocate religious practices in the affective realm—an insight that helps us better understand how religion is lived in conjunction with systems of power. To demonstrate religion's animality and how it works affectively, Schaefer turns to a series of case studies, including the documentary film "Jesus Camp" and contemporary American Islamophobia. Placing affect theory in conversation with post-Darwinian evolutionary theory, Schaefer explores the extent to which nonhuman animals have the capacity to practice religion, linking human forms of religion and power through a new analysis of the chimpanzee waterfall dance as observed by Jane Goodall. In this compelling case for the use of affect theory in religious studies, Schaefer provides a new model for mapping relations between religion, politics, species, globalization, secularism, race, and ethics.
Read here: https://www.academia.edu/18041441/Religious_Affects_Animality_Evolution_and_Power_Duke_2015_
USA Discount Code: https://www.academia.edu/18041272/Book_Announcement_Religious_Affects_Animality_Evolution_and_Power_USA_Discount_Code_
Read here: https://www.academia.edu/18041441/Religious_Affects_Animality_Evolution_and_Power_Duke_2015_
USA Discount Code: https://www.academia.edu/18041272/Book_Announcement_Religious_Affects_Animality_Evolution_and_Power_USA_Discount_Code_
Research Interests: Religion, Evolutionary Biology, Philosophy Of Religion, Feminist Theory, Primatology, and 14 moreQueer Theory, Feminist Philosophy, History Of Emotions, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Science and Religion, Cognitive Science of Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Animals and Animality, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Feminist science and technology studies, and Religious Studies
Commenting on Frantz Fanon's account of the material culture created by European colonizers in the aftermath of invasion, Achille Mbembe notes that the colony is fundamentally a state of war, a contest of forces, in which "sensory... more
Commenting on Frantz Fanon's account of the material culture created by European colonizers in the aftermath of invasion, Achille Mbembe notes that the colony is fundamentally a state of war, a contest of forces, in which "sensory life"—the continuum of bodies, objects, and landscapes—is a battlefield. "From this point of view," he writes, "colonial domination requires an enormous investment in affect and ceremony and a significant emotional expenditure." This essay argues for a reappraisal of the work of Michel Foucault as a theory of material culture. Linking Foucault's work on power to studies of material culture, it reviews Foucault's late concept of the dispositif, which specifies the ways power is projected by objects like the scaffold and the panopticon. The article then puts Foucault's approach to material culture in conversation with two strands of contemporary critical thought—New Materialism and affect theory—to show how a full-fledged analytics of power–matter–affect might emerge. What Foucault calls the "analytics of power" supports the critical study of affect and ceremony—the streams of force that constitute subjectivity above, beneath, or outside of language. By way of example, this article explores how this emergent framework can provide new resources for moving beyond liberal approaches to the problem of Confederate monuments. Although Foucault is often read as a theorist preoccupied with discourse, a reconsideration of the dispositif shows that Foucault's analytics of power enhances our understanding of the role of material culture in guiding political affects.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Emotion, Material Culture Studies, History Of Emotions, and 15 moreContinental Philosophy, Built Environment, Michel Foucault, American Civil War, Affect Theory, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Material Culture, Affect, New Materialism, Monuments, Dispositif (Apparatus-Theory), Michel Foucault and the theory of Power, Feminist new materialism, and Confederate Monuments
The conventional formula for dividing religious and secular connects religion to emotion and secularity to rationality. However, recent work in what has been called critical secularism studies has challenged this orientation. This body of... more
The conventional formula for dividing religious and secular connects religion to emotion and secularity to rationality. However, recent work in what has been called critical secularism studies has challenged this orientation. This body of scholarship has proposed that the line between secular and religious is blurry, and that we should expect the secular to be determined by emotion just as much as religion. Postcolonial theorist Saba Mahmood calls these “secular affects,” which include the affects of science. Recent research in science and technology studies has suggested that science itself is driven by feelings, like excitement in the exploration of concepts and information.
This paper considers the desire built into science as a vehicle not only of important scientific achievements, but also scientific violence. What Aristotle called the “desire to know” can be linked to a history of extraordinary racialized and gendered forms of violence throughout the history of science. Today, one of the most prominent domains of scientific violence is directed at nonhuman animals. Building on studies of the embodied practices that render scientists morally capable of laboratory animal experimentation, this article considers how scientific affects are able to produce regimes of spectacular violence, which in turn become part of the broader landscape of the secular.
This paper considers the desire built into science as a vehicle not only of important scientific achievements, but also scientific violence. What Aristotle called the “desire to know” can be linked to a history of extraordinary racialized and gendered forms of violence throughout the history of science. Today, one of the most prominent domains of scientific violence is directed at nonhuman animals. Building on studies of the embodied practices that render scientists morally capable of laboratory animal experimentation, this article considers how scientific affects are able to produce regimes of spectacular violence, which in turn become part of the broader landscape of the secular.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Animal Studies, Animal Ethics, Critical Animal Studies, History of Science, and 14 moreEmbodiment, Secularization, Habitus, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Animals & Society studies, Human-Animal Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Affect, Science Studies, Secularism, Atheism/Secular Studies, Animal Experimentation, and Science and Technology Studies
This chapter considers an evolutionary approach to religion that spotlights the importance of feeling. It starts with a consideration of how Charles Darwin transformed our understanding of human beings by demonstrating the biological... more
This chapter considers an evolutionary approach to religion that spotlights the importance of feeling. It starts with a consideration of how Charles Darwin transformed our understanding of human beings by demonstrating the biological connection between humans and animals. This included, for Darwin, special attention to the correspondence between human and animal emotions. Building on this approach, the “life-world” science of Jakob von Uexküll is discussed. In this method, humans and other than human animals are defined by the deep emotional relationships we form with the world around us. This suggests a way of thinking about religion that is shared by both humans and other animals. Examples of animal behavior that could be considered religious are considered in this light. The chapter concludes by thinking through the ethical implications of this new understanding of animal religious emotions.
Research Interests: Religion, Ethology, Emotion, Philosophy Of Religion, Animal Studies, and 15 moreCritical Animal Studies, Theory of Religion, Phenomenology, Animal Rights/Liberation, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Darwinism, Human-Animal Studies, Jakob von Uexküll, Darwin, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religion and Animals, Animal Rights, Science Studies, Animals, and Science and Technology Studies
This brief article maps the links between the material religion approach and contemporary affect theory, proposing that material religion and material culture studies more generally can be deepened by taking affect into account. To fully... more
This brief article maps the links between the material religion approach and contemporary affect theory, proposing that material religion and material culture studies more generally can be deepened by taking affect into account. To fully unlock affect theory's potential to augment material culture studies, we need to commit to an understanding of affect that moves beyond "relationality." The article concludes with a consideration of how this approach can be applied to the study of controversies around Confederate monuments. A contribution to the "In Conversation" section on "Material and Embodied Power Dynamics in Religion" in Material Religion (19.1).
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17432200.2023.2170110
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17432200.2023.2170110
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Religion, Sociology of Religion, Emotion, American Studies, and 15 morePhilosophy Of Religion, Material Culture Studies, Material culture of religion, American Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Affect Theory, Material Religion, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Material Culture, Religious Studies, Affect, New Materialism, Monuments, and Confederate Monuments
This chapter considers the relationship between science and religion. Although the conventional wisdom is that science and religion are exact opposites, destined to clash whenever they try to occupy the same space—what historians of... more
This chapter considers the relationship between science and religion. Although the conventional wisdom is that science and religion are exact opposites, destined to clash whenever they try to occupy the same space—what historians of science call the "conflict thesis"—this chapter reveals a much more nuanced range of interactions, both historically and in the present day. At the same time, the chapter will show that to understand their interactions, we need to critically consider the history of the terms “science” and “religion” themselves. Ultimately, it is suggested, we need to turn away from simple maps of science and religion as either “in conflict” or “in harmony.”
Research Interests: History of Science, Theory of Religion, Science and Religion, Galileo Galilei, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and 7 moreHistory of Science and Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Studies, Science Studies, University History, History of University, and Science and Technology Studies
Is there a queer Darwin? It is often assumed that Darwinian biology is an ally of conservative approaches to sexuality and gender. The Christian legal framework known as natural law philosophy, for instance, reads Darwin as a champion of... more
Is there a queer Darwin? It is often assumed that Darwinian biology is an ally of conservative approaches to sexuality and gender. The Christian legal framework known as natural law philosophy, for instance, reads Darwin as a champion of heterosexual coupling, proving the biological imperative of straight sex. Some feminist readings of Darwin (such as that of Elizabeth Grosz) find in Darwin a confirmation of the necessity of sexual difference organized around masculinity and femininity—an approach Myra Hird has called the “ontology of heterosexuality.” But these interpretations are incorrect. Schaefer argues that far from being an advocate for the ontology of heterosexuality, Darwin provides tools to demolish it. Turning to his research on barnacles and orchids and his speculation on the sources of organic variation, this essay highlights the irreducible importance of diversity and change for Darwin's framework. The ongoing ferment of variation that is the guideline of all life on earth extends not only to the morphology of sex organs but to desire itself. Darwin shows that the ontology of heterosexuality is an arbitrary snapshot, a single moment in the fluid trajectory of life, rather than a law that can be arbitrarily cast over the whole arc. In this, Darwin supports Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's first axiom for queer theory: “People are different from each other.” The essay concludes by connecting a Darwinian approach to sex with José Esteban Muñoz's call for a queer ecstasy that anticipates the futurity of desire.
Author version. Please cite published version available here: https://read.dukeupress.edu/glq/article-abstract/27/4/525/175602/Darwin-s-OrchidsEvolution-Natural-Law-and-the
Author version. Please cite published version available here: https://read.dukeupress.edu/glq/article-abstract/27/4/525/175602/Darwin-s-OrchidsEvolution-Natural-Law-and-the
Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Queer Studies, Transgender Studies, Queer Theory, History of Science, and 15 moreNatural Law, Gender and Sexuality, Gay And Lesbian Studies, History of Sexuality, Evolution, Affect Theory, Darwin, Natural Law Theory, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Affect, Evolutionary theory, Science Studies, Charles Darwin, Jose Esteban Munoz, and Science and Technology Studies
Ruth Leys’s work is often cited in conversations around affect, especially her 2011 article “The Turn to Affect,” which became the foundation for her subsequent book _The Ascent of Affect: Genealogy and Critique_. In this critical review... more
Ruth Leys’s work is often cited in conversations around affect, especially her 2011 article “The Turn to Affect,” which became the foundation for her subsequent book _The Ascent of Affect: Genealogy and Critique_. In this critical review essay, I suggest that Leys’ work is most often invoked in these contexts as a placeholder for criticism of affect theory without a clear sense of the particulars of her argument. I set out to show that her analysis of affect theory relies on a questionable interpretation of a 1994 book by psychologist Alan Fridlund--a book that does not fully align with her own line of argument. Leys’ work, I argue here, offers a distorted representation of the state of the scientific conversation in psychology of emotion, then awkwardly transposes that image onto contemporary affect theory in the humanities.
This essay examines four aspects of Leys’ project that reflect mischaracterizations or idiosyncratic interpretations of her scientific sources. First, I consider Leys’ commitment not to “genealogy” per se, as her title announces, but to an attempt to adjudicate debates in emotion psychology by referring all of them back to Fridlund’s 1994 book _Human Facial Expressions: An Evolutionary View_. Second, I look at Leys’ imprecise engagement with the philosophical debates around “intentionality,” which she understands as being broadly about rationality and consciousness, rather than a narrower, technical discussion about the nature of mental processes and their relation to objects. Third, I consider how Leys’ elevation of Fridlund’s affinity with Richard Dawkins’ gene-level adaptationist view of evolutionary biology further undermines her efforts to carve out a space for human “meaning.” All of this is driven, I conclude, by a kind of nostalgia for an unchallenged liberal rationalism. In addition to unraveling how science is invoked in Leys’ arguments, the article also responds to the general criticisms she and others level against affect theory.
Full open-access article available here: https://capaciousjournal.com/issue/vol-2-no-4-articles/schaefer-rationalist-nostalgia.pdf
This essay examines four aspects of Leys’ project that reflect mischaracterizations or idiosyncratic interpretations of her scientific sources. First, I consider Leys’ commitment not to “genealogy” per se, as her title announces, but to an attempt to adjudicate debates in emotion psychology by referring all of them back to Fridlund’s 1994 book _Human Facial Expressions: An Evolutionary View_. Second, I look at Leys’ imprecise engagement with the philosophical debates around “intentionality,” which she understands as being broadly about rationality and consciousness, rather than a narrower, technical discussion about the nature of mental processes and their relation to objects. Third, I consider how Leys’ elevation of Fridlund’s affinity with Richard Dawkins’ gene-level adaptationist view of evolutionary biology further undermines her efforts to carve out a space for human “meaning.” All of this is driven, I conclude, by a kind of nostalgia for an unchallenged liberal rationalism. In addition to unraveling how science is invoked in Leys’ arguments, the article also responds to the general criticisms she and others level against affect theory.
Full open-access article available here: https://capaciousjournal.com/issue/vol-2-no-4-articles/schaefer-rationalist-nostalgia.pdf
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Emotion, Philosophy of Science, Media Studies, and 15 moreMedia and Cultural Studies, Feminist Theory, Philosophy of Psychology, Cultural Theory, History Of Emotions, Queer Theory (Literature), Philosophy of Emotion, Affect Theory, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Cognition and Emotion, Emotions, Affect, Science Studies, and Science and Technology Studies
Author version. Please cite final published version available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/zygo.12766 As Alister McGrath has argued across a lifetime of work, we need to approach the binaries that have been... more
Author version. Please cite final published version available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/zygo.12766
As Alister McGrath has argued across a lifetime of work, we need to approach the binaries that have been handed down to us—personal/academic, emotional/intellectual, secular/religious—with a healthy skepticism toward the integrity of their boundaries, attending instead to the contact zones between them. This article connects McGrath's body of work to what I call “cogency theory,” an approach that rejects the thinking/feeling binary itself. It begins with a survey of how McGrath understands rationality—not only as multiple, but as defined, in meaningful ways, by feeling. This is illustrated by reexamining McGrath's controversy with Richard Dawkins, analyzing their debate in terms of how the argument itself comes to feel. This new paradigm allows us to supersede petty antagonisms built into contemporary culture—like the presumed science–religion conflict—and refocus on overarching concerns like the climate crisis. The article concludes with a question about the extent to which beliefs and “worldviews” define how we—either as groups or individuals—can make or unmake ecological disaster.
As Alister McGrath has argued across a lifetime of work, we need to approach the binaries that have been handed down to us—personal/academic, emotional/intellectual, secular/religious—with a healthy skepticism toward the integrity of their boundaries, attending instead to the contact zones between them. This article connects McGrath's body of work to what I call “cogency theory,” an approach that rejects the thinking/feeling binary itself. It begins with a survey of how McGrath understands rationality—not only as multiple, but as defined, in meaningful ways, by feeling. This is illustrated by reexamining McGrath's controversy with Richard Dawkins, analyzing their debate in terms of how the argument itself comes to feel. This new paradigm allows us to supersede petty antagonisms built into contemporary culture—like the presumed science–religion conflict—and refocus on overarching concerns like the climate crisis. The article concludes with a question about the extent to which beliefs and “worldviews” define how we—either as groups or individuals—can make or unmake ecological disaster.
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy Of Religion, Atheism, History of Science, and 11 moreReligion and Ecology, Science and Religion, Environmental Ethics, Secularization, Secularisms and Secularities, History of Science and Religion, Religious Studies, Science Studies, Secularism, New Atheism, and Science and Technology Studies
Full open-access article available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17432200.2022.2048604 This article examines the visual culture of the 1925 Scopes Trial, including editorial cartoons from contemporary periodicals and... more
Full open-access article available here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17432200.2022.2048604
This article examines the visual culture of the 1925 Scopes Trial, including editorial cartoons from contemporary periodicals and the 1960 film version of Inherit the Wind. Combining studies of material religion with affect theory, it suggests that this network of imagery instantiates an "economy of dignity" in which different factions seek to consolidate their positions through visual representations of shame and pride.
This article examines the visual culture of the 1925 Scopes Trial, including editorial cartoons from contemporary periodicals and the 1960 film version of Inherit the Wind. Combining studies of material religion with affect theory, it suggests that this network of imagery instantiates an "economy of dignity" in which different factions seek to consolidate their positions through visual representations of shame and pride.
Research Interests: Emotion, American Studies, Print Culture, Material Culture Studies, Material culture of religion, and 15 moreReligion and Politics, Visual Culture, History of Science, Race and Ethnicity, History Of Emotions, Science and Religion, History of Biology, Affect Theory, Material Religion, 20th Century American, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Visual and Cultural Studies, History of Science and Religion, and Affect
Is secularism something that could or should be taught in the world religions classroom? This podcast with Christopher Cotter and Donovan Schaefer for the Religious Studies Project considers the rationale for including the study of... more
Is secularism something that could or should be taught in the world religions classroom? This podcast with Christopher Cotter and Donovan Schaefer for the Religious Studies Project considers the rationale for including the study of secularism as part of the study of world religions, proposing two possible avenues for doing so. The transcript, published in Implicit Religion, kicks off a symposium on this topic with responses from Thomas J. Coleman, Kyle Messick, Christopher R. Cotter, Tenzan Eaghll, Jacqui Frost, Mariam Goshadze, and James Murphy.
Religious Studies Project link: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/is-secularism-a-world-religion/
Implicit Religion link: https://journal.equinoxpub.com/IR/article/view/15408
Religious Studies Project link: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/is-secularism-a-world-religion/
Implicit Religion link: https://journal.equinoxpub.com/IR/article/view/15408
Research Interests: Religion, History of Religion, Secular Ideology, Secularization, Politics of Secularism, and 11 moreComparative Secularism, Secularisms and Secularities, World Religions, Religious Studies, Secularism, Atheism/Secular Studies, Teaching Religious Studies, Post-Secular Theory, Comparative Study of World Religions, Secular, and Effective Teaching of Religious Education
A response to commentators as part of the symposium on "Is Secularism a World Religion?" on the pedagogical value of teaching secularism in the world religions classroom.
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/IR/article/view/15422
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/IR/article/view/15422
Research Interests: Religion, History of Religion, Secular Ideology, Secularization, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and 9 morePolitics of Secularism, Religious Studies (Theory And Methodology), Secularisms and Secularities, World Religions, Religious Studies, Secularism, Critical Religion, Comparative Study of World Religions, and Effective Teaching of Religious Education
Natural law perspectives take existing formations of life-matter and translate them into normative templates. From an evolutionary perspective, the normative aspect of natural law is always under suspicion. Because life-forms have... more
Natural law perspectives take existing formations of life-matter and translate them into normative templates. From an evolutionary perspective, the normative aspect of natural law is always under suspicion. Because life-forms have histories and futures that are shaped by a dynamic of accidents, they are not susceptible to normative assertions about what they "should" be or do. This is particularly the case with sex. Sexual reproduction is a minoritarian strategy within the full spectrum of life. Like all aspects of life, sex is a product of a fluctuating backdrop of phylogenetic (species-forming) and ontogenetic (individual-forming) accidents. And like all aspects of life, it continues to vary within this field of material processes. My argument in this essay is that, rather than a fully integrated feature of a lawlike apparatus, sex is a mess. From the evolutionary perspective-and especially, I show, in the light of the new "extended evolutionary synthesis"-sex always has been and always will be barnacled with accidents. This dovetails with what we might call material trans theory, a species of New Materialism that sees sex as a concrescence of material forces and processes introjected into bodies. Both views leave sex fundamentally incompatible with metaphysical explanations or metaphysical norms-including and especially natural law.
Part of the symposium "Nonhuman Encounters: Animals, Objects, Affects, and the Place of Practice" edited by Katie Gentile and Ann Pellegrini, Studies in Gender and Sexuality (2018.1).
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15240657.2018.1419690
Part of the symposium "Nonhuman Encounters: Animals, Objects, Affects, and the Place of Practice" edited by Katie Gentile and Ann Pellegrini, Studies in Gender and Sexuality (2018.1).
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15240657.2018.1419690
Research Interests: Queer Studies, Feminist Theory, Queer Theology, Transgender Studies, Queer Theory, and 15 moreNatural Law, Evolution of Sexual Reproduction, Sexuality, Gender and Sexuality, Feminism, Theories of Gender and Transgender, Transgender, Affect (Cultural Theory), Affect, Transsexuality and Transgender, New Materialism, New Materialisms, Feminist new materialism, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, and Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Studies
A crowd-sourced list of theory-oriented journals in the humanities. Compiled by members of the Facebook groups Comparative Theory and Capacious in fall 2020.
Research Interests:
Provides a brief overview of affect theory and challenges its dominant Deleuzian interpretation by reorienting the study of affect to animality. It concludes with a case study in applying this revised approach to the work of Saba... more
Provides a brief overview of affect theory and challenges its dominant Deleuzian interpretation by reorienting the study of affect to animality. It concludes with a case study in applying this revised approach to the work of Saba Mahmood.
Published in _Religion, Emotion, Sensation: Affect Theories and Theologies._ Bray, Karen, and Stephen Moore, ed. Fordham University Press, 2019.
An excerpt from the Elements volume _The Evolution of Affect Theory: The Humanities, the Sciences, and the Study of Power_ (Cambridge: 2019)
Published in _Religion, Emotion, Sensation: Affect Theories and Theologies._ Bray, Karen, and Stephen Moore, ed. Fordham University Press, 2019.
An excerpt from the Elements volume _The Evolution of Affect Theory: The Humanities, the Sciences, and the Study of Power_ (Cambridge: 2019)
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Religion, Emotion, Philosophy Of Religion, Queer Theory, and 15 moreAnimal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, Embodiment, Phenomenology, Continental Philosophy, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Phenomenology of the body, Affect Theory, Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religious Studies, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Affect, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy
This essay draws on affect theory to develop an account of Donald Trump’s rhetorical methods. Building on the work of other scholars who have linked affect theory to Communication Studies, this paper argues that the success of Trump’s... more
This essay draws on affect theory to develop an account of Donald Trump’s rhetorical methods. Building on the work of other scholars who have linked affect theory to Communication Studies, this paper argues that the success of Trump’s rhetoric emerges, in part, through his mastery of a circuit of shame and dignity, in which supporters—especially white supporters—who feel ashamed find, in his verbal and visual style, a repudiation of shame. After discussing how shame constitutes a particular rhetorical field, I assess how Trump’s style of communication offers a defiance of shame in the name of rejuvenated racialized self-confidence.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Communication, Media and Cultural Studies, Rhetoric, and 15 moreComposition and Rhetoric, Critical Race Studies, Race and Racism, Cultural Theory, Critical Race Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Whiteness Studies, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Affect Theory, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Critical Whiteness Studies, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Affect, and Donald Trump
Catherine Keller’s Cloud of the Impossible knits together process theology and relational ontology with quantum mechanics. In quantum physics, she finds a new resource for undoing the architecture of classical metaphysics and its location... more
Catherine Keller’s Cloud of the Impossible knits together process theology and relational ontology with quantum mechanics. In quantum physics, she finds a new resource for undoing the architecture of classical metaphysics and its location of autonomous human subjects as the primary gears of ethical agency. Keller swarms theology with the quantum perspective, focusing in particular on the phenomenon of quantum entanglement, by which quantum particles are found to remain influential over each other long after they have been physically separated—what Albert Einstein and his collaborators recklessly dismissed as “spooky action at a distance.” This spooky action, Keller suggests, reroutes process thought—classically concerned with flux—to a new concern with intransigence—particularly the intransigence of the ethical relationship. Attending to the ethical urgency of the Other, she leaves process theology in a position of susceptibility to the moral imperative posed by the marginalized, the victimized, and the oppressed. This essay argues that although the ontological work of Keller’s book productively integrates quantum physics into process theology, the ethical dimension of relationality is left cold in the quantum field. This is because, contra the ethical framework of contemporary deconstruction, which, following Emmanuel Levinas, sees ethical relationships as emerging out of a dynamic of infinite distance, moral connection has nothing to do with the remote reaches of the quantum scale or the macro-scale limits of space—nothing to do with “infinity” at all. Ethics emerges out of a much messier landscape—the evolved dynamic of fleshy, finite, material bodies. Rather than seeing ethical labor as a matter of physics, my contention (and here I think I am arguing with, rather than against Keller) is that interdisciplinary undertakings like Cloud of the Impossible are ethical disciplinary practices, re-acquainting us with the non-sovereignty of the self in order to open up new habits of relating rather than spotlighting ethical imperatives.
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Embodiment, Continental Philosophy, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), and 14 moreProcess Theology, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Theology), Science and Religion, Émmanuel Lévinas, Jacques Derrida, Affect Theory, Continental Philosophy and Theology, Affect/Emotion, Apophaticism, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religion and Science, Affect, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, and Apophatic theology
James Joyce’s Ulysses can be read through the prism of the New Materialist School of contemporary critical thought to shed light on ongoing questions in the humanities about the relationship between language and embodiment. Specifically,... more
James Joyce’s Ulysses can be read through the prism of the New Materialist School of contemporary critical thought to shed light on ongoing questions in the humanities about the relationship between language and embodiment. Specifically, Ulysses resonates with three thematic concerns of New Materialisms: the nature of matter, the correspondence between human and animal, and the role of affect. Contra some calls for the humanities to retrench in a conservative posture that reaffirms the special status of human reason and “consciousness” – corresponding to Catholic readings of Ulysses that find in Joyce a metaphysical philosopher of transcendence – New Materialisms take human continuity with animals and matter seriously. Joyce’s Ulysses, by developing robust accounts of the interactions between matter, language, and thinking bodies, offers a template for exploring this convergence, demonstrating that the human “ghost” must be understood as radically inextricable from its material body and the material formations of its world.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Religion, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Feminist Theory, and 42 moreJames Joyce, Queer Theory, Poststructuralism, Feminist Philosophy, Cultural Theory, Deconstruction, Theory of Religion, Continental Philosophy, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), John D. Caputo, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Theology), Ghosts, Literary Theory, Materialism, Postmodernism, Feminism, Jacques Derrida, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Animals and Animality, Affect Theory, Derridean Deconstruction, Religious Studies (Theory And Methodology), Philosophy Of Animals, Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Animals in Culture, Affect (Cultural Theory), Feminist Literary Theory and Gender Studies, Jacques Derrida & Deconstruction, Poststructuralist Theory, Religious Studies, Affect, Dualism, Elizabeth Grosz, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, New Materialism, Materiality, James Joyce's Ulysses, METHOD AND THEORY FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION, New Materialisms, Feminist new materialism, and Continental Philosophy and Aesthetics
From Corrigan, John, ed. _Feeling Religion._ Duke University Press, 2018. Reading is often taken to be a supremely conceptual, detached undertaking. But the perspective of affect theory illuminates a much more dynamic relationship... more
From Corrigan, John, ed. _Feeling Religion._ Duke University Press, 2018.
Reading is often taken to be a supremely conceptual, detached undertaking. But the perspective of affect theory illuminates a much more dynamic relationship playing out within reading bodies. Reading—and all forms of knowledge production—are affectively saturated processes. Affect theorists, especially in the queer/feminist tradition typified by scholars such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Sara Ahmed, present us with what Lauren Berlant has called a “sensualized epistemology”: they show us that knowledge production is always done through the medium of emotional textures. The question we should always be asking is: How does knowledge feel? This essay lays out the parameters of sensualized epistemology and then considers the implications of it for understanding the religious controversies surrounding the work of Charles Darwin. The corresponding implications for the contemporary scientific secular moment—the rise of the New Atheist—are then analyzed using the same frame.
Reading is often taken to be a supremely conceptual, detached undertaking. But the perspective of affect theory illuminates a much more dynamic relationship playing out within reading bodies. Reading—and all forms of knowledge production—are affectively saturated processes. Affect theorists, especially in the queer/feminist tradition typified by scholars such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Sara Ahmed, present us with what Lauren Berlant has called a “sensualized epistemology”: they show us that knowledge production is always done through the medium of emotional textures. The question we should always be asking is: How does knowledge feel? This essay lays out the parameters of sensualized epistemology and then considers the implications of it for understanding the religious controversies surrounding the work of Charles Darwin. The corresponding implications for the contemporary scientific secular moment—the rise of the New Atheist—are then analyzed using the same frame.
Research Interests: Religion, Atheism, Feminist Theory, Material culture of religion, Queer Theory, and 27 moreHistory of Science, Continental Philosophy, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Science and Religion, Popular Culture and Religious Studies, Affective Neuroscience, Secularization, Politics of Secularism, History of Atheism, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Darwin, Affect (Cultural Theory), History of Science and Religion, Feminist science and technology studies, Religion and Science, Religious Studies, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Affect, Secularism, New Atheism, Charles Darwin, Lauren Berlant, Atheism/Secular Studies, and Science and Technology Studies
Abstract: Natural law perspectives take existing formations of life-matter and translate them into normative templates. From an evolutionary perspective, the normative aspect of natural law is always under suspicion. Because life-forms... more
Abstract: Natural law perspectives take existing formations of life-matter and translate them into normative templates. From an evolutionary perspective, the normative aspect of natural law is always under suspicion. Because life-forms have histories and futures that are shaped by a dynamic of accidents, they are not susceptible to normative assertions about what they “should” be or do. This is particularly the case with sex. Sexual reproduction is a minoritarian strategy within the full spectrum of life. Like all aspects of life, sex is a product of a fluctuating backdrop of phylogenetic (species-forming) and ontogenetic (individual-forming) accidents. And like all aspects of life, it continues to vary within this field of material processes. My argument in this essay is that, rather than a fully integrated feature of a lawlike apparatus, sex is a mess. From the evolutionary perspective—and especially, I will show, in the light of the new “extended evolutionary synthesis”—sex always has been and always will be barnacled with accidents. This dovetails with what we might call material trans theory, a species of New Materialism that sees sex as a concrescence of material forces and processes introjected into bodies. Both views leave sex fundamentally incompatible with metaphysical explanations or metaphysical norms—including and especially natural law.
Research Interests: Queer Studies, Feminist Theory, Transgender Studies, Queer Theory, Natural Law, and 17 moreFeminism, Theories of Gender and Transgender, Affect Theory, Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Transgender, Affect (Cultural Theory), Feminist Literary Theory and Gender Studies, Natural Law Theory, Affect, Evolutionary theory, New Materialism, Queer, New Materialisms, Feminist new materialism, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, and Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Studies
This article considers four responses to the 2015 volume _Religious Affects_ and draws out their implications for thinking religion, affect, science, and contemporary politics. In response to Courtney O'Dell-Chaib's "Biophilia's Queer... more
This article considers four responses to the 2015 volume _Religious Affects_ and draws out their implications for thinking religion, affect, science, and contemporary politics. In response to Courtney O'Dell-Chaib's "Biophilia's Queer Remnants," the role of accident in evolutionary theory and affect theory is discussed. The response to Jay Johnston's "Rewilding Religion" focuses on religion as a function of species. In response to Hollis Phelps' "Do Mushrooms Have Religion, Too?" a critique of the Deleuzian model of affect theory is set out. Finally, in response to Matthew Hotham's "Affect, Animality, and Islamophobia," the affective politics of Islamophobic racism are connected to the election of Donald Trump.
Full special issue available here:
https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/BSOR/issue/view/2542
Full special issue available here:
https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/BSOR/issue/view/2542
Research Interests: Religion, Queer Studies, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion and Politics, Queer Theory, and 12 moreGilles Deleuze, Deleuze, Affect Theory, Islamophobia, Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religion and Animals, Religious Studies, Racism, Identity, Islamophobia, Affectation, and Queer Theory and Religion
A chapter in the recently published OXFORD HANDBOOK OF 19TH-CENTURY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT (Rasmussen, Wolfe, & Zachhuber, ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). This chapter examines broad transformations in Christian thought that came... more
A chapter in the recently published OXFORD HANDBOOK OF 19TH-CENTURY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT (Rasmussen, Wolfe, & Zachhuber, ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
This chapter examines broad transformations in Christian thought that came to pass over the course of the nineteenth century through exposure to new developments in the life sciences. Taking William Paley’s Natural Theology (1802) as a starting point, it shows how a conception of an unchanging God that could be demonstrated through rational proof was affected by the new emphasis change in the biological sciences, especially in the aftermath of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859. Rather than suggesting that these new themes weakened Christian faith, however, a close examination of Christian thought in the latter half of the nineteenth century shows that encounters with science energized Christian theology, philosophy, and practice. After laying out the particulars of Darwin’s theory, this chapter examines a series of critical and synthetic Christian responses to it, including those of Darwin’s cousin, Frances Julia Wedgwood, Adam Sedgwick, and the American evangelical preacher Henry Ward Beecher. Finally, it turns to the development of the psychology of religion, as exhibited by the American pragamatists William James and Charles S. Peirce, arguing that these figures took on board Darwinian imperatives to connect God to change, embodied history, and emotion. George Eliot’s Middlemarch serves as a guide to the complexity of these transformations, suggesting the possibilities and limitations of an encounter between science and the Christian spirit.
This chapter examines broad transformations in Christian thought that came to pass over the course of the nineteenth century through exposure to new developments in the life sciences. Taking William Paley’s Natural Theology (1802) as a starting point, it shows how a conception of an unchanging God that could be demonstrated through rational proof was affected by the new emphasis change in the biological sciences, especially in the aftermath of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859. Rather than suggesting that these new themes weakened Christian faith, however, a close examination of Christian thought in the latter half of the nineteenth century shows that encounters with science energized Christian theology, philosophy, and practice. After laying out the particulars of Darwin’s theory, this chapter examines a series of critical and synthetic Christian responses to it, including those of Darwin’s cousin, Frances Julia Wedgwood, Adam Sedgwick, and the American evangelical preacher Henry Ward Beecher. Finally, it turns to the development of the psychology of religion, as exhibited by the American pragamatists William James and Charles S. Peirce, arguing that these figures took on board Darwinian imperatives to connect God to change, embodied history, and emotion. George Eliot’s Middlemarch serves as a guide to the complexity of these transformations, suggesting the possibilities and limitations of an encounter between science and the Christian spirit.
Research Interests:
Affect theory is a subfield that encourages us to think about how we interact with each other and the world along registers that are not reducible to language. This has suggested to some scholars that affect theory can also be used to... more
Affect theory is a subfield that encourages us to think about how we interact with each other and the world along registers that are not reducible to language. This has suggested to some scholars that affect theory can also be used to better understand the experience of animals. This article explores a merger between affect theory, animal studies, and the lifeworld tradition of phenomenology. The upshot of this is a way of seeing how animals, like humans, have rich religious worlds that are shaped by pre-linguistic textures of affect. This perspective indicates that animals can be thrown into a state of trauma by being deprived of these lifeworlds. In light of this, the essay considers the ethical implications of the modern factory farm system, particularly the practice of mass confinement.
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Animal Ethics, Phenomenology, Science and Religion, and 11 morePopular Culture and Religious Studies, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Animal Rights/Liberation, Affect Theory, Affect Studies, Jakob von Uexküll, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religion and Animals, Animal Rights, Religious Studies, and Affect
Research Interests:
“I quite rightly pass for an atheist,” Jacques Derrida announces in Circumfession. Grace Jantzen's suggestion that the poststructuralist critique of modernity can also be trained on atheism helps us make sense of this playfully cryptic... more
“I quite rightly pass for an atheist,” Jacques Derrida announces in Circumfession. Grace Jantzen's suggestion that the poststructuralist critique of modernity can also be trained on atheism helps us make sense of this playfully cryptic statement: although Derrida sympathizes with the “idea” of atheism, he is wary of the modern brand of atheism, with its insistence on rationally arranging—straightening out—religion. In this paper, I will argue that poststructural feminism, with its focus on embodied epistemology, offers a way to re-explain Derrida's “I rightly pass,” and also to carry it forward. Poststructural feminist atheism leads us through Derrida to an embodied disbelief drawing on three dimensions of poststructural feminism: feminist epistemology and material feminism, relationality, and affect theory.
Research Interests: Philosophy Of Religion, Atheism, Feminist Theory, Poststructuralism, Feminist Epistemology, and 10 moreAmerican Religion, Feminism, French Feminism, Jacques Derrida, Poststructuralist Feminist Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Affect (Cultural Theory), Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Secularism, and Material Feminism
This paper explores the ways that Daniel C. Dennett’s bestselling 2006 book Breaking the Spell traffics in a set of distinctly American presumptions about the relationship between religion and science. In this Americanized atheism,... more
This paper explores the ways that Daniel C. Dennett’s bestselling 2006 book Breaking the Spell traffics in a set of distinctly American presumptions about the relationship between religion and science. In this Americanized atheism, religion is presumed to be a set of logically organized propositional beliefs--a misbegotten science in need of correction or elimination. I show that a convergent critique, drawing on both evolutionary theory and deconstruction, highlights the limitations of this approach. This convergence raises the theme of accident in both pluralist evolutionary biology and continental philosophy of religion. This opens up a new conversational space between a deconstructive approach to religion and postadaptationist evolutionary theory, with implications not only for a philosophical understanding of religion, but for new, postsecular atheisms.
Research Interests: Atheism, Deconstruction, Continental Philosophy, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), John D. Caputo, and 9 moreAmerican Religion, Jacques Derrida, Derridean Deconstruction, Secularisms and Secularities, Postsecularism (Sociology), Evolutionary theory, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, New Atheism, and Stephen Jay Gould
This short review essay reads Steve McQueen's 2013 film "12 Years a Slave" through the prism of affect theory--especially Sharon Patricia Holland's notion of the "erotics of racism"--to argue that different racialized forms of American... more
This short review essay reads Steve McQueen's 2013 film "12 Years a Slave" through the prism of affect theory--especially Sharon Patricia Holland's notion of the "erotics of racism"--to argue that different racialized forms of American Protestantism are represented in the film as different strategies for the circulation of affects.
Research Interests:
The field of religious studies has recently begun to explore a number of aspects of the relationship between animals and religion. The bulk of these explorations have been focused on reconsidering human ethical relationships with animals... more
The field of religious studies has recently begun to explore a number of aspects of the relationship between animals and religion. The bulk of these explorations have been focused on reconsidering human ethical relationships with animals in light of religious values or exploring the textual and ritual meanings of animal bodies against the background of human religions. Another line of inquiry, the topic of this paper, looks at the religious experiences of animals themselves, and draws these questions into methodological conversations within the study of religion generally. This paper surveys a variety of approaches to animal religion from two disciplinary perspectives: comparative religion and cognitive ethology. From comparative religion, building on the work of Kimberley Patton, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Creek, Cherokee, Christian, and Islamic understandings of the religious lives of animals are explored in turn. From cognitive ethology, two approaches are developed: across-species look at animal responses to death, building on the work of Marc Bekoff, and a specific look at religious practices within the order Primates. Ultimately, the paper concludes, the study of animal religion must proceed by thinking along two lines found throughout these accounts: the differences between animal bodies (what Jacques Derrida calls the “het-erogeneous multiplicity” of animals) and the orientation of religious bodies to affect. Rather than thinking of religion as one thing, we must conceive of religion as multiple, corresponding to the multiplicity of embodied lifeways found among animals. And rather than thinking of religion as inextricable from belief,we must begin to explore the emotional patterns that make up religion among animals—human and nonhuman. These thematic anchors of animal religion have direct implications for the study of religion itself, especially in light of what Manuel Vásquez has called the “materialist shift” in religious studies.
Research Interests:
Originally published in The Conversation at:
https://theconversation.com/for-150-years-black-journalists-have-known-what-confederate-monuments-really-stood-for-217895
https://theconversation.com/for-150-years-black-journalists-have-known-what-confederate-monuments-really-stood-for-217895
Research Interests: American History, Black Studies Or African American Studies, American Studies, Race and Racism, Southern Studies (U.S. South), and 9 moreCritical Race Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Southern History, American Civil War, African American Studies, Black Press, Black Intellectual History, Monuments, and Confederate Monuments
This blog post looks at the rise of former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo as an instantiation of white Christian nationalism. It considers how the public commemoration of Rizzo--statues and murals as well as in online forums--in... more
This blog post looks at the rise of former Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo as an instantiation of white Christian nationalism. It considers how the public commemoration of Rizzo--statues and murals as well as in online forums--in Philadelphia serves to advance white Christian nationalist interests and how Rizzo himself prefigured the rise of Donald Trump. It also attends to the question of what forms a Catholic white Christian nationalism takes.
The associated podcast (available at the link below) includes interview material with Prof. Anthea Butler about her book, _White Evangelical Racism_.
Podcast available at https://religionlab.virginia.edu/projects/the-citys-salvation-frank-rizzo-and-white-christian-nationalism-in-philadelphia/
The associated podcast (available at the link below) includes interview material with Prof. Anthea Butler about her book, _White Evangelical Racism_.
Podcast available at https://religionlab.virginia.edu/projects/the-citys-salvation-frank-rizzo-and-white-christian-nationalism-in-philadelphia/
Research Interests: Religion, American History, American Catholicism, History of Religion, Material Culture Studies, and 15 moreMaterial culture of religion, American Religion, Whiteness Studies, History of Roman Catholicism, The 1970s and 1980s (U.S. history), Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Material Religion, History of Philadelphia, Critical Whiteness Studies, Material Culture, Religious Studies, History of the City, Monuments, Philadelphia, and Monuments & Memorials
A response to Craig Martin's "Discourse and Ideology: A Critique of the Study of Culture" for the Religious Studies Project. Criticizes the "discourse analysis" paradigm for misunderstanding the relationship between language and power.... more
A response to Craig Martin's "Discourse and Ideology: A Critique of the Study of Culture" for the Religious Studies Project. Criticizes the "discourse analysis" paradigm for misunderstanding the relationship between language and power. Offers a rereading of the work of J.L. Austin that focuses on his undefined concept of "illocutionary force" and uses this notion to try to understand why right-wing media use Black speakers to advance right-wing talking points.
Original posts available here:
https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/response/how-do-words-work/
Original posts available here:
https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/response/how-do-words-work/
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, and 15 moreMedia Studies, Performance Studies, Discourse, Performativity, Performance, Performance and performativity, Media, Affect Theory, Affect (Cultural Theory), Speech Act Theory, Religious Studies, Affect, J. L. Austin, J.L. Austin, and Locutionary and Illocutionary Acts
What is the emotional dimension of science? And what are the implications of this finding for the field of science and religion? How does the emotional character of science reshape our approach to the science/religion "conflict thesis"... more
What is the emotional dimension of science? And what are the implications of this finding for the field of science and religion? How does the emotional character of science reshape our approach to the science/religion "conflict thesis" and to theological apologetics that draw on science?
Also available at https://www.issr.org.uk/blog/september-2022-blog-post/
Also available at https://www.issr.org.uk/blog/september-2022-blog-post/
Research Interests: Religion, Emotion, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy Of Religion, and 15 moreHistory of Science, History Of Emotions, Science and Religion, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Theology and Science, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), History of Science and Religion, Cognition and Emotion, Religious Studies, Affect, science and technology studies (STS), Secularism, and Science and Technology Studies
This article connects secularism studies and affect theory to a reconsideration of Weber's notion of disenchantment. To understand how the secular operates, we need to see it not as the removal of feeling and its replacement by reason,... more
This article connects secularism studies and affect theory to a reconsideration of Weber's notion of disenchantment. To understand how the secular operates, we need to see it not as the removal of feeling and its replacement by reason, but as the advancement of a new set of affective coordinates. This includes the affects that are wrapped up with knowledge-production itself.
Originally published on the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network blog: https://thensrn.org/2022/08/02/secular-rationality-secular-affects/
Originally published on the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network blog: https://thensrn.org/2022/08/02/secular-rationality-secular-affects/
Research Interests:
Article for The Conversation exploring the relationship between conspiracy theory and emotion. Originally published here:... more
Article for The Conversation exploring the relationship between conspiracy theory and emotion.
Originally published here: https://theconversation.com/buying-into-conspiracy-theories-can-be-exciting-thats-what-makes-them-dangerous-184623
https://www.dukeupress.edu/wild-experiment
Originally published here: https://theconversation.com/buying-into-conspiracy-theories-can-be-exciting-thats-what-makes-them-dangerous-184623
https://www.dukeupress.edu/wild-experiment
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Emotion, American Studies, Philosophy of Science, and 15 moreWilliam James, Conspiracy Theories, Affect Theory, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Cognition and Emotion, Emotions, Conspiracy Culture, American Pragmatism, Affect, science and technology studies (STS), Science Studies, Belief in Conspiracy Theory, Qanon, and Donald Trump
How does the way facts feel to us shape our reception of climate science? What are the implications of this for science communication and overcoming climate denialism? Originally published July 14, 2022:... more
How does the way facts feel to us shape our reception of climate science? What are the implications of this for science communication and overcoming climate denialism?
Originally published July 14, 2022: https://www.counterpointknowledge.org/hiding-in-horror-feeling-and-believing-climate-science/
Originally published July 14, 2022: https://www.counterpointknowledge.org/hiding-in-horror-feeling-and-believing-climate-science/
Research Interests: Emotion, Environmental Science, Communication, Science Communication, Climate Change, and 13 moreReligion and Ecology, Science and Religion, Environmental Ethics, Ecology, Affect Theory, Environmental Sustainability, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religion and nature, Cognition and Emotion, Communication Studies, Science Studies, Climate Change Communication, and Environment and Religion
For the 2020 Religion and Society "Portrait" of Talal Asad, an overview of how Asad's work has reshaped the field of religious studies.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Social Theory, Anthropology, Postcolonial Studies, and 13 moreTheory of Religion, Postcolonial Theory, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Affect Theory, Religious Studies (Theory And Methodology), Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Talal Asad, Jonathan Z. Smith, Religious Studies, Affect, and Anthropology of Religion
A short essay on the intersection of affect theory and critical secularism studies.
Originally published as part of The Immanent Frame's "A Universe of Terms" project. (http://tif.ssrc.org/2020/04/17/affect-schaefer/)
Originally published as part of The Immanent Frame's "A Universe of Terms" project. (http://tif.ssrc.org/2020/04/17/affect-schaefer/)
Research Interests: Religion, Sociology of Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Modernity, Secularization, and 15 morePolitics of Secularism, Charles Taylor, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Religion and Modernity, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Talal Asad, Max Weber, Affect, Secularism, Disenchantment, Atheism/Secular Studies, Histories and theories of modernity, and Peter Berger
Guest blog post for the Philosophers' Cocoon series "How to Write a Philosophy Book."
Original posted here: https://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2019/04/how-to-write-a-philosophy-book-the-monograph-as-laboratory.html
Original posted here: https://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2019/04/how-to-write-a-philosophy-book-the-monograph-as-laboratory.html
An essay outlining affect theory's significance for politics and exploring its connections with political theology. Part I of the Political Theology Network forum "Affect Theory for PT." Originally available here:... more
An essay outlining affect theory's significance for politics and exploring its connections with political theology. Part I of the Political Theology Network forum "Affect Theory for PT." Originally available here: https://politicaltheology.com/the-face-of-the-sovereign/
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, American Studies, American Politics, Feminist Theory, and 12 morePolitical Theory, Performance Studies, Feminist Philosophy, Gilles Deleuze, Political Theology, Affect Theory, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Affect/Emotion, Performance Theory, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), and Affect
A short essay on the application of affect theory to the study of ancient texts. Part of a forum responding to Maia Kotrosits' _Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging_, January 2019. Originally published at... more
A short essay on the application of affect theory to the study of ancient texts. Part of a forum responding to Maia Kotrosits' _Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging_, January 2019.
Originally published at Ancient Jew Review, http://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2019/1/11/the-codex-of-feeling-affect-theory-and-ancient-texts
Originally published at Ancient Jew Review, http://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2019/1/11/the-codex-of-feeling-affect-theory-and-ancient-texts
Research Interests: Religion, Cultural Studies, Feminist Theory, History of Religion, Religion and Politics, and 15 moreEarly Christianity, History Of Emotions, Biblical Studies, Ancient Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Affect Theory, Ancient Near East, Christian Origins, Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religious Studies, Affect, Early Christian Literature, and Ancient Literature
This essay looks at the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin as an expression of material mourning. The memorial ruptures the divide between the religious and the secular by highlighting the way the emotional logic of the... more
This essay looks at the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin as an expression of material mourning. The memorial ruptures the divide between the religious and the secular by highlighting the way the emotional logic of the material culture of mourning seems to be shared by both sides. Originally published on The Immanent Frame. https://tif.ssrc.org/2018/03/02/material-mourning-in-the-secular-sculpture-garden/ All photos by the author.
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Atheism, History of Religion, Death, and 28 moreDeath Studies, Material Culture Studies, Material culture of religion, Religion and Politics, Ritual, Mourning, Secularization, Post-Soviet Studies, Politics of Secularism, History of Atheism, Affect Theory, Death and Burial (Archaeology), Secularisms and Secularities, Material Religion, Affect/Emotion, Soviet Visual Culture, Affect Studies, Ritual Theory, Culture in the Soviet Union, Affect (Cultural Theory), Affect (Philosophy), Berlin, Religious Studies, Affect, Secularism, Atheism/Secular Studies, Death, Grief, and Mourning, and Ritual Practices
Jason Blum's "Depths and Accidents" probes the relationship between affect theory, experience, and power. Donovan Schaefer's response, "The Material Foucault," reads Foucault in conjunction with new materialism and affect theory to... more
Jason Blum's "Depths and Accidents" probes the relationship between affect theory, experience, and power. Donovan Schaefer's response, "The Material Foucault," reads Foucault in conjunction with new materialism and affect theory to propose a new way of understanding the field of power. From the 2017 Syndicate Network symposium on _Religious Affects_, available here.
https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/religious-affects/
https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/religious-affects/
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, William James, Michel Foucault, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and 10 moreAffect Theory, Affect/Emotion, Religious Experience, Affect (Cultural Theory), Affect, New Materialism, Biopower and Biopolitics, New Materialisms, Michel Foucault and the theory of Power, and Feminist new materialism
Christopher Carter considers some of the implications of affect theory for thinking about white supremacy, which is better understood as white domination. Donovan Schaefer responds with an overview of some ways of thinking about whiteness... more
Christopher Carter considers some of the implications of affect theory for thinking about white supremacy, which is better understood as white domination. Donovan Schaefer responds with an overview of some ways of thinking about whiteness itself as an affective formation. From the 2017 Syndicate Network symposium on _Religious Affects_, available here. https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/religious-affects/
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Race and Racism, Critical Race Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Whiteness Studies, and 9 moreRace and Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Affect Theory, Affect/Emotion, Affect (Cultural Theory), Critical Whiteness Studies, Religious Studies, and Affect
Yasemin Ural summarizes _Religious Affects_ and asks whether the definition of "religion" used in the book is primarily a critique of Christian patterns of power-knowledge. Donovan Schaefer argues for a definition of religion as... more
Yasemin Ural summarizes _Religious Affects_ and asks whether the definition of "religion" used in the book is primarily a critique of Christian patterns of power-knowledge. Donovan Schaefer argues for a definition of religion as continuous with other formations of power, rather than as a unique system of beliefs.
From the 2017 Syndicate Network symposium on _Religious Affects_, available here. https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/religious-affects/
From the 2017 Syndicate Network symposium on _Religious Affects_, available here. https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/religious-affects/
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Postcolonial Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and 11 moreAffect Theory, Religious Studies (Theory And Methodology), Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Animals in Culture, Postcolonial theory (Cultural Theory), Affect (Cultural Theory), Religion and Animals, Religious Studies, Affect, and Postcolonialism
Pamela Klassen proposes that affect theory is limited if it can't engage with reason and language. Donovan Schaefer responds with an argument for a version of affect theory that is woven into rationality rather than independent of it, and... more
Pamela Klassen proposes that affect theory is limited if it can't engage with reason and language. Donovan Schaefer responds with an argument for a version of affect theory that is woven into rationality rather than independent of it, and considers material religion as a field in which we can see "rational" decision-making interlaced with emotion.
From the 2017 Syndicate Network symposium on _Religious Affects_, available here. https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/religious-affects/
From the 2017 Syndicate Network symposium on _Religious Affects_, available here. https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/religious-affects/
Research Interests:
Devin Singh connects the dancing apes of _Religious Affects_ with the communicative dance of bees to deconstruct the economic/non-economic binary and add a new dimension to discussions of animal religion. Donovan Schaefer considers the... more
Devin Singh connects the dancing apes of _Religious Affects_ with the communicative dance of bees to deconstruct the economic/non-economic binary and add a new dimension to discussions of animal religion. Donovan Schaefer considers the implications of this for a theory of religion that doesn't automatically assume religion to be an expression of excess. From the 2017 Syndicate Network symposium on _Religious Affects_, available here. https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/religious-affects/
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Religion, Sociology of Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Theology, and 16 moreHistory of Religion, Animal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, Georges Bataille, Political Theology, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Affect Theory, Religious Studies (Theory And Methodology), Adam Smith, Affect/Emotion, Affect Studies, Human-Animal Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religious Studies, Affect, and Philosophy and Religious Studies
A short article published March 21, 2016 for Religion Dispatches analyzing Donald Trump from the perspective of affect theory, with constant reference to _The West Wing._ Original article is here:... more
A short article published March 21, 2016 for Religion Dispatches analyzing Donald Trump from the perspective of affect theory, with constant reference to _The West Wing._
Original article is here:
http://religiondispatches.org/trumps-evangelical-support-in-the-gut-not-the-theology/
Original article is here:
http://religiondispatches.org/trumps-evangelical-support-in-the-gut-not-the-theology/
Research Interests:
A short introduction to affect theory and its implications for politics published on the Duke U Press website, Feb 15, 2016. Citable version available here:... more
A short introduction to affect theory and its implications for politics published on the Duke U Press website, Feb 15, 2016.
Citable version available here: https://dukeupress.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/its-not-what-you-think-affect-theory-and-power-take-to-the-stage/
Citable version available here: https://dukeupress.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/its-not-what-you-think-affect-theory-and-power-take-to-the-stage/
Research Interests:
Pope Francis's encyclical "Laudato Si" opens the possibility for a new relationship between science and religion. Although most academic historians have long since discarded the "conflict thesis"--the notion that science and religion must... more
Pope Francis's encyclical "Laudato Si" opens the possibility for a new relationship between science and religion. Although most academic historians have long since discarded the "conflict thesis"--the notion that science and religion must always find themselves in opposition--popular impressions still often think of science and religion as being at odds. This essay for Religion Dispatches argues that Francis's encyclical suggests a radically different template. By framing environmental degradation and global economic disparity as interlinked moral/religious concerns, Francis opens up the possibility of an alliance between science and religion in which both are lined up against the ecologically destructive effects of a capitalist regime that places profit over and above all other concerns.
http://religiondispatches.org/did-pope-francis-just-end-the-religion-and-science-conflict/
http://religiondispatches.org/did-pope-francis-just-end-the-religion-and-science-conflict/
Research Interests:
A Review of "Interplay of Things: Religion, Art, and Presence Together" by Anthony B. Pinn.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17432200.2023.2170105
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17432200.2023.2170105
Research Interests:
A Review of "Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt" by Alec Ryrie (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2019). Published on the Religion and Its Publics blog (April 2022). Original available here:... more
A Review of "Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt" by Alec Ryrie (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2019). Published on the Religion and Its Publics blog (April 2022). Original available here:
http://relpubs.as.virginia.edu/unbelievers-an-emotional-history-of-doubt-a-review-by-donovan-o-schaefer/
http://relpubs.as.virginia.edu/unbelievers-an-emotional-history-of-doubt-a-review-by-donovan-o-schaefer/
Research Interests: Religion, Emotion, Philosophy Of Religion, Secular Humanism, Atheism, and 15 moreReligion and Politics, History Of Emotions, Science and Religion, Secularization, History of Atheism, Affect Theory, Secularisms and Secularities, Affect (Cultural Theory), Emotions, Religion and Culture, Affect, Secularism, New Atheism, Atheism/Secular Studies, and Secular
A Review of Science under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America, by Andrew Jewett (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2020). Published in ISIS 112.2 (Sept. 2021). Original available here:... more
A Review of Science under Fire: Challenges to Scientific Authority in Modern America, by Andrew Jewett (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2020). Published in ISIS 112.2 (Sept. 2021). Original available here:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/715708
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/715708
Research Interests:
Review essay for *Enter the Animal: Cross-Species Perspectives on Grief and Spirituality* by Teya Brooks Pribac (Sydney University Press, 2021). Originally published in Animal Studies Journal 10.2 (2021). Available at:... more
Review essay for *Enter the Animal: Cross-Species Perspectives on Grief and Spirituality* by Teya Brooks Pribac (Sydney University Press, 2021).
Originally published in Animal Studies Journal 10.2 (2021). Available at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol10/iss2/10
Originally published in Animal Studies Journal 10.2 (2021). Available at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asj/vol10/iss2/10
Research Interests: Religion, Death, Death Studies, Animal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, and 13 moreAnthrozoology, Religion and Ecology, Animal Welfare, Human-Animal Relationships, Human-Animal Studies, Animals in Philosophy, Farm Animal Welfare, Religion and nature, Religion and Animals, Animal Rights, Religious Studies, Grief and Loss, and Grief
Book review of Lawrence Grossberg's Under the Cover of Chaos: Trump and the Battle for the American Right. (California 2019)
Originally published in Cultural Studies:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09502386.2019.1584904
Originally published in Cultural Studies:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09502386.2019.1584904
Research Interests:
A review of David Chidester's Religion: Material Dynamics. Originally published in Reading Religion.
http://readingreligion.org/books/religion-0
http://readingreligion.org/books/religion-0
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Religion, Comparative Religion, Globalization, History of Religion, and 10 morePostcolonial Studies, Material culture of religion, Religion and Politics, Popular Culture and Religious Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Material Religion, Postcolonial theory (Cultural Theory), Religious Studies, and Anthropology of Religion
A writeup of this review and the full document is available free for download here: http://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/psyccritiques-spotlight/issue-16.aspx Are animals used in scientific research “it” or “who”? This is the core theme... more
A writeup of this review and the full document is available free for download here:
http://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/psyccritiques-spotlight/issue-16.aspx
Are animals used in scientific research “it” or “who”? This is the core theme of John P. Gluck’s gentle but powerful book Voracious Science and Vulnerable Animals. Gluck, a former primate researcher trained by Harry Harlow at the University of Wisconsin in the 1970s, who later transitioned to a career in clinical psychology at the University of New Mexico, offers a brief in favor of a massive reduction in our use of animals in experimental research, especially in psychology (though details on how precisely this is to be done are scant). This brief, however, does not come in the form of a sustained philosophical argument. Instead, the book is a memoir, presenting fascinating contributions to science studies and the history of psychology. At the same time, although not a formal ethical argument, Gluck sheds light on important ethical questions surrounding animal experimentation, with special attention to issues like the invisible suffering of animals caused by prolonged confinement and the “moral residual” of an act that is necessary, but nonetheless produces a moral deficit that must be redressed. What would it mean to create an ethic that leaves some room for animal experimentation, but compels us to consider the moral residual caused by these acts? On this question, Gluck offers a brilliant, forceful meditation, generous in its self-reflexivity, compassionate towards animals and scientists alike, and profound in its insights.
http://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/psyccritiques-spotlight/issue-16.aspx
Are animals used in scientific research “it” or “who”? This is the core theme of John P. Gluck’s gentle but powerful book Voracious Science and Vulnerable Animals. Gluck, a former primate researcher trained by Harry Harlow at the University of Wisconsin in the 1970s, who later transitioned to a career in clinical psychology at the University of New Mexico, offers a brief in favor of a massive reduction in our use of animals in experimental research, especially in psychology (though details on how precisely this is to be done are scant). This brief, however, does not come in the form of a sustained philosophical argument. Instead, the book is a memoir, presenting fascinating contributions to science studies and the history of psychology. At the same time, although not a formal ethical argument, Gluck sheds light on important ethical questions surrounding animal experimentation, with special attention to issues like the invisible suffering of animals caused by prolonged confinement and the “moral residual” of an act that is necessary, but nonetheless produces a moral deficit that must be redressed. What would it mean to create an ethic that leaves some room for animal experimentation, but compels us to consider the moral residual caused by these acts? On this question, Gluck offers a brilliant, forceful meditation, generous in its self-reflexivity, compassionate towards animals and scientists alike, and profound in its insights.
Research Interests:
A review of Aaron S. Gross' "The Question of the Animal and Religion: Theoretical Stakes, Practical Implications." (Columbia UP: 2014) Originally published in the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, 10.4 (2016):... more
A review of Aaron S. Gross' "The Question of the Animal and Religion: Theoretical Stakes, Practical Implications." (Columbia UP: 2014)
Originally published in the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, 10.4 (2016): 516-518.
https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/JSRNC/article/view/28899/28931
Originally published in the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, 10.4 (2016): 516-518.
https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/JSRNC/article/view/28899/28931
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Jewish Studies, History of Religion, Posthumanism, and 11 moreAnimal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, History of Religions, Jacques Derrida, Animal Rights/Liberation, Human-Animal Studies, Religion and Animals, Jonathan Z. Smith, Religious Studies, Mircea Eliade, and History of the Study of Religions
An extended review essay on Peter Harrison's _THE TERRITORIES OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION_ (Chicago 2015).
Originally posted at:
http://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/modern-mosaic-science-religion-donovan-schaefer/
Originally posted at:
http://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/modern-mosaic-science-religion-donovan-schaefer/
Research Interests:
Short book review of James W. Jones’ Can Science Explain Religion? The Cognitive Science Debate. (Oxford, 2016) Published in Religious Studies Review 42(2) June 2016: 92. Original version available here:... more
Short book review of James W. Jones’ Can Science Explain Religion? The Cognitive Science Debate. (Oxford, 2016)
Published in Religious Studies Review 42(2) June 2016: 92.
Original version available here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rsr.12374_1/abstract
Published in Religious Studies Review 42(2) June 2016: 92.
Original version available here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rsr.12374_1/abstract
Research Interests:
A book review of Richard Cimino and Christopher Smith's "Atheist Awakening" for the Journal of American Studies 50 (2016).... more
A book review of Richard Cimino and Christopher Smith's "Atheist Awakening" for the Journal of American Studies 50 (2016).
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10262525&utm_source=Issue_Alert&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=AMS
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10262525&utm_source=Issue_Alert&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=AMS
Research Interests:
Review essay on Hector A. Garcia's "Alpha God: The Psychology of Religious Violence and Oppression." (Prometheus: 2015) Originally published online in The Revealer, October 19, 2015. (http://therevealer.org/archives/20416)
Research Interests: Religion, Evolutionary Psychology, Primatology, Religion and Politics, Evolution of Religion, and 9 moreSociobiology, Psychology of Religion, Science and Religion, Cognitive Science of Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Animals and Animality, Religion and Violence, Religion and Science, and Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
A review of Stephen Prothero's "God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World and Why Their Differences Matter."
Research Interests:
A book review of Linda Mercadante's "Belief without Borders" for the Journal of Secularism and Nonreligion 4 (2015).
http://www.secularismandnonreligion.org/articles/10.5334/snr.bb/
http://www.secularismandnonreligion.org/articles/10.5334/snr.bb/
Research Interests:
Alfonso Cuarón’s "Gravity" offers a feminist rejoinder to Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction epic "2001: A Space Odyssey." Where "2001" drew a line of ascent carrying man from a primitive savannah to space to “the Infinite,” "Gravity"... more
Alfonso Cuarón’s "Gravity" offers a feminist rejoinder to Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction epic "2001: A Space Odyssey." Where "2001" drew a line of ascent carrying man from a primitive savannah to space to “the Infinite,” "Gravity" starts with a woman’s body in space and follows it back to earth, re-orienting the religious coordinates of the sci-fi genre. Drawing on feminist philosophy and continental philosophy of religion, this presentation explores "Gravity’s" thematic inversion of "2001" as a repudiation of what Luce Irigaray calls the “male God of infinitude.”
Research Interests: Philosophy Of Religion, Animal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, Feminist Philosophy, Phenomenology, and 9 moreContinental Philosophy, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), John D. Caputo, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Theology), Luce Irigaray, Feminist film theory, Stanley Kubrick, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, and Alfonso Cuarón
This talk for the 2012 Religion and Media Workshop introduces affect theory and considers its usefulness for thinking about Islamophobia in America. It takes media representations from the Park51 controversy of 2010 as a case study.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Religion, Media Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory, and 11 moreAmerican Religion, Religion, Media, and Culture, Affect Theory, Islamophobia, Affect Studies, Affect (Cultural Theory), Religion and Media, Affect, New Materialism, Islamophobia and Media, and New Materialisms
An interview with Jessica Covil-Manset for the Duke University Press blog. Schaefer’s new book is Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin. Examining the reception of evolutionary biology, the 1925 Scopes Trial, and... more
An interview with Jessica Covil-Manset for the Duke University Press blog. Schaefer’s new book is Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin. Examining the reception of evolutionary biology, the 1925 Scopes Trial, and the New Atheist movement of the 2000s, Schaefer theorizes the relationship between thinking and feeling by challenging the conventional wisdom that they are separate.
https://dukeupress.wordpress.com/2022/10/05/qa-with-donovan-o-schaefer/
https://dukeupress.wordpress.com/2022/10/05/qa-with-donovan-o-schaefer/
Research Interests:
A short interview with Megan Goodwin for Religion Dispatches about _Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin_ Originally published July 5, 2022:... more
A short interview with Megan Goodwin for Religion Dispatches about _Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin_
Originally published July 5, 2022: https://religiondispatches.org/what-role-do-feelings-play-in-conspiracy-racism-and-climate-denial-welcome-to-phoning-it-in-episode-1/
Originally published July 5, 2022: https://religiondispatches.org/what-role-do-feelings-play-in-conspiracy-racism-and-climate-denial-welcome-to-phoning-it-in-episode-1/
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Feminist Theory, Climate Change, Queer Theory, Feminist Epistemology, and 12 moreCritical Race Theory, Conspiracy Theories, Poststructuralist Feminist Theory, Affect Theory, Affect (Cultural Theory), Queer of Color Critique, Conspiracy Culture, Religious Studies, Affect, Science Studies, Climate Change Communication, and Antiracism
"In his new book, Donovan Schaefer, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that there is no thinking without feeling." Interview with Katelyn Silva for Omnia Magazine. Original available here:... more
"In his new book, Donovan Schaefer, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that there is no thinking without feeling."
Interview with Katelyn Silva for Omnia Magazine. Original available here: https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/cognition-feels
Interview with Katelyn Silva for Omnia Magazine. Original available here: https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/cognition-feels
Research Interests:
Christian von Scheve of the Freie Universitat Berlin interviews Donovan Schaefer on religious affects at the Affective Societies Collaborative Research Centre at FUB, November 2016.... more
Christian von Scheve of the Freie Universitat Berlin interviews Donovan Schaefer on religious affects at the Affective Societies Collaborative Research Centre at FUB, November 2016.
http://affective-societies.de/en/2016/collective/c02/an-interview-with-donovan-schaefer-on-religious-affects/
http://affective-societies.de/en/2016/collective/c02/an-interview-with-donovan-schaefer-on-religious-affects/
Research Interests:
Interview with Andrew Aghapour and Michael Schulson of Religion Dispatches, February 2016.... more
Interview with Andrew Aghapour and Michael Schulson of Religion Dispatches, February 2016.
http://religiondispatches.org/in-the-beginning-was-not-the-word-why-belief-in-the-primacy-of-language-leads-to-a-misunderstanding-of-richard-dawkins-islamophobia-and-politics/
http://religiondispatches.org/in-the-beginning-was-not-the-word-why-belief-in-the-primacy-of-language-leads-to-a-misunderstanding-of-richard-dawkins-islamophobia-and-politics/
Research Interests:
Podcast with Eleanor Puttock of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St Edmunds College, Cambridge. https://soundcloud.com/university-of-cambridge/dononvan-schaefer-science-religion-secularity-and-more... more
Podcast with Eleanor Puttock of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St Edmunds College, Cambridge.
https://soundcloud.com/university-of-cambridge/dononvan-schaefer-science-religion-secularity-and-more
https://www.academia.edu/18041441/Religious_Affects_Animality_Evolution_and_Power_Duke_2015_
https://www.dukeupress.edu/religious-affects?viewby=subject&categoryid=15&sort=newest
https://soundcloud.com/university-of-cambridge/dononvan-schaefer-science-religion-secularity-and-more
https://www.academia.edu/18041441/Religious_Affects_Animality_Evolution_and_Power_Duke_2015_
https://www.dukeupress.edu/religious-affects?viewby=subject&categoryid=15&sort=newest
The State of Things, WUNC, interview with John Corrigan and Sarah Ross, 19 Feb 2015.
http://wunc.org/post/role-emotion-religion
http://wunc.org/post/role-emotion-religion
Interview with Ipsita Chatterjea about the Religion, Affect, and Emotion group of the American Academy of Religion.
http://www.equinoxpub.com/blog/2015/02/better-get-to-know-the-aars-religion-affect-and-emotion-group/
http://www.equinoxpub.com/blog/2015/02/better-get-to-know-the-aars-religion-affect-and-emotion-group/
This conference has capacious aims! In and across the diverse practices and studies of affect, how might we continue to 'find room' or 'make space' and under what circumstances might such a framing for affect study be problematic? This... more
This conference has capacious aims! In and across the diverse practices and studies of affect, how might we continue to 'find room' or 'make space' and under what circumstances might such a framing for affect study be problematic? This conference will be open to all (students, faculty, non-academics, and others) while emphasizing the crucial role of graduate students and early career researchers in shaping the scholarship in affect study.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Religion, Psychoanalysis, Emotion, and 76 moreBlack Studies Or African American Studies, Queer Studies, Political Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Media Studies, New Media, Composition and Rhetoric, Design, Feminist Theory, Film Studies, Film Theory, Disability Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Queer Theology, Transgender Studies, Sociology of Emotion, Queer Theory, Animal Studies, Critical Pedagogy, Critical Animal Studies, Anthropology of the Body, Literary Criticism, Cultural Theory, Cognition, Embodied Cognition, Bodies and Culture, Embodiment, Critical Race Theory, Embodied Mind and Cognition, Continental Philosophy, Emotional Labour, Digital Culture, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Sound studies, The Body, Affective Neuroscience, Rhetorical Criticism, Feminism, Critical Media Studies, Theories of Gender and Transgender, Queer Theory (Literature), Sociology of the Body, Phenomenology of the body, Architectural Theory, Affect Theory, Freud and Feminist Psychoanalysis, Rhetorical Theory, Affect/Emotion, Spinoza, Critical and Cultural Theory, Affect Studies, Black Feminist Theory/Thought, Phenomenology of the Body (Philosophy), Affect (Cultural Theory), Feminist Literary Theory and Gender Studies, Affect (Philosophy), Cinematic Affect, Embodiment Theory, Embodied and Distributed Cognition, Sensation and Perception, Affect, Emotion and Feeling, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Affect, Blackness, Negative Affect, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Queer, Sensation, Lauren Berlant, Feelings, Embodied and Enactive Cognition, Structures of Feeling, Anthropology of Religion, Politics of Affect, Feeling and Emotion, Phenomenology of Feelings, and Critical Disability Theory
This conference has capacious aims! In and across the diverse practices and studies of affect, how might we continue to 'find room' or 'make space' and under what circumstances might such a framing for affect study be problematic? Modeled... more
This conference has capacious aims! In and across the diverse practices and studies of affect, how might we continue to 'find room' or 'make space' and under what circumstances might such a framing for affect study be problematic? Modeled on the same ethos of community building, mentorship, and intellectual generosity that guides Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affective Inquiry, this conference will be open to all (students, faculty, non-academics, and others) while emphasizing the crucial role of graduate students and early career researchers in shaping the scholarship in affect study.
Like the well-received #affectWTF event of 2015, the three full days of this conference will be largely structured around proposed panel streams. Submissions that tend toward the more undisciplined , evocative / provocative, and aesthetically-oriented (what we are calling 'interstices') are also encouraged. Spotlight panel sessions and seminars / workshops with a dozen brilliant up-and-comers—including a few established scholars—will provide stirring evidence and useful insights about the latest trajectories of affect inquiry.
TWO WAYS TO SUBMIT TO BE A PRESENTER AT THIS CONFERENCE:
A) CALL FOR PAPERS TO STREAMS
1) 250-word paper abstracts – oriented to one of the accepted stream proposals – can now be submitted. ALL PAPERS MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE at http://capaciousjournal.com/conference/ The final deadline for submissions is THURSDAY, MARCH 15. The conference core committee will keep a master file of all submissions.
2) To aid with proper routing, PLEASE INCLUDE THE STREAM NAME in the subject-line of your emailed paper-abstract submission. The email attachment of your abstract should be in Word. Abstracts can be single-authored or co-authored.
B) INTERSTICES
For those who pursue affect in ways that might be less formally academic and more aesthetic/performative/poetic/evocative, etc., we welcome the submission of proposals for performances, art installations, musical pieces, film and video showings, and similarly provocative interventions. Please submit a detailed description of no more than 500 words regarding any such activity – including special requirements for space, number of persons involved, and some sense of the time-range – to capacious@millersville.edu by no later than THURSDAY, MARCH 15. Please make sure to put the word 'INTERSTICE' in your email subject-line.
(Initial inquiries to the Capacious Conference Core Committee about proposed 'interstices' submissions are encouraged before the deadline.)
Like the well-received #affectWTF event of 2015, the three full days of this conference will be largely structured around proposed panel streams. Submissions that tend toward the more undisciplined , evocative / provocative, and aesthetically-oriented (what we are calling 'interstices') are also encouraged. Spotlight panel sessions and seminars / workshops with a dozen brilliant up-and-comers—including a few established scholars—will provide stirring evidence and useful insights about the latest trajectories of affect inquiry.
TWO WAYS TO SUBMIT TO BE A PRESENTER AT THIS CONFERENCE:
A) CALL FOR PAPERS TO STREAMS
1) 250-word paper abstracts – oriented to one of the accepted stream proposals – can now be submitted. ALL PAPERS MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE at http://capaciousjournal.com/conference/ The final deadline for submissions is THURSDAY, MARCH 15. The conference core committee will keep a master file of all submissions.
2) To aid with proper routing, PLEASE INCLUDE THE STREAM NAME in the subject-line of your emailed paper-abstract submission. The email attachment of your abstract should be in Word. Abstracts can be single-authored or co-authored.
B) INTERSTICES
For those who pursue affect in ways that might be less formally academic and more aesthetic/performative/poetic/evocative, etc., we welcome the submission of proposals for performances, art installations, musical pieces, film and video showings, and similarly provocative interventions. Please submit a detailed description of no more than 500 words regarding any such activity – including special requirements for space, number of persons involved, and some sense of the time-range – to capacious@millersville.edu by no later than THURSDAY, MARCH 15. Please make sure to put the word 'INTERSTICE' in your email subject-line.
(Initial inquiries to the Capacious Conference Core Committee about proposed 'interstices' submissions are encouraged before the deadline.)
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Psychoanalysis, Black Studies Or African American Studies, Queer Studies, and 55 moreMedia Studies, New Media, Media and Cultural Studies, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Feminist Theory, Film Studies, Film Theory, Disability Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Transgender Studies, Queer Theory, Animal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, Literary Criticism, Cultural Theory, Cognition, Embodied Cognition, Bodies and Culture, Critical Race Theory, Continental Philosophy, Digital Culture, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Sound studies, The Body, Disability Theory, Critical Media Studies, Theories of Gender and Transgender, Queer Theory (Literature), Media, Sociology of the Body, Black feminism, Psychoanalysis And Literature, Affect Theory, Feminist Media Studies, Freud and Feminist Psychoanalysis, Rhetorical Theory, Affect/Emotion, Critical and Cultural Theory, Affect Studies, Black Feminist Theory/Thought, Affect (Cultural Theory), Feminist Literary Theory and Gender Studies, Affect (Philosophy), Disability, Psychoanalytic Theory, New Media Studies, Contemporary Philosophy, Film and Media Studies, Affect, Blackness, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Media and Communication Studies, Embodied and Enactive Cognition, and Communication and media Studies
CFP: Religion, Society, and the Science of Life An interdisciplinary conference exploring how the life sciences intersect with the humanities. St. Anne’s College, Oxford, 19-22 July 2017 “There will never be a Newton for the blade of... more
CFP: Religion, Society, and the Science of Life
An interdisciplinary conference exploring how the life sciences intersect with the humanities.
St. Anne’s College, Oxford, 19-22 July 2017
“There will never be a Newton for the blade of grass,” Kant wrote in 1784, a quarter-century before the birth of Charles Darwin, and less than a half-century before the first synthesis of an organic compound in a laboratory. Life is an object of science, but an object like no other, presenting an unparalleled field of complexity and intricacy. A single cell contains an entire world. Biology is changing, with increasing recognition of how context influences even the most basic processes. This is why the science of life is distinctive among the sciences using history, narrative, and teleological explanations. All of this sets up fascinating resonances with the humanities. Can a convergence between the humanities and biology—from Darwin and Lamarck to holism and epigenetics—shed light on human societies, narratives, and religions? This interdisciplinary conference (a joint venture between the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion and the International Society for Science and Religion) will explore the implications of the life sciences for religion, values, morality, education, and meaning.
Plenary Speakers: Samantha Frost (University of Illinois), Massimo Pigliucci (City University of New York), Ullica Segerstrale (Illinois Institute of Technology), Rebecca Stott (University of East Anglia).
Special ISSR Symposium: Ottoline Leyser (University of Cambridge), Michael Ruse (Florida State University), Fraser Watts (University of Lincoln)
Public Lectures: Alister McGrath (University of Oxford), Michael Reiss (University of Cambridge)
Call for Papers
Short papers are invited on topics relevant to the conference themes, to be delivered in parallel sessions of 30 minutes duration (20-minute paper, 10 minutes discussion). Those wishing to contribute a paper should submit a title, a 300-word abstract that situates the proposed paper against its relevant scholarly backdrop, and institutional affiliation by email to irc.admin@theology.ox.ac.uk with the subject line “Science of Life Conference Abstract.”
Closing date for abstract submissions: Friday, 28th April
Notification of acceptance: Friday, 10 May
For questions on paper submissions, please contact donovan.schaefer@theology.ox.ac.uk.
Registration
All those wishing to attend are invited to register via the University of Oxford online shop available through the conference website. http://www.ianramseycentre.info/conferences/2017-religion-society-science-life.html
An interdisciplinary conference exploring how the life sciences intersect with the humanities.
St. Anne’s College, Oxford, 19-22 July 2017
“There will never be a Newton for the blade of grass,” Kant wrote in 1784, a quarter-century before the birth of Charles Darwin, and less than a half-century before the first synthesis of an organic compound in a laboratory. Life is an object of science, but an object like no other, presenting an unparalleled field of complexity and intricacy. A single cell contains an entire world. Biology is changing, with increasing recognition of how context influences even the most basic processes. This is why the science of life is distinctive among the sciences using history, narrative, and teleological explanations. All of this sets up fascinating resonances with the humanities. Can a convergence between the humanities and biology—from Darwin and Lamarck to holism and epigenetics—shed light on human societies, narratives, and religions? This interdisciplinary conference (a joint venture between the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion and the International Society for Science and Religion) will explore the implications of the life sciences for religion, values, morality, education, and meaning.
Plenary Speakers: Samantha Frost (University of Illinois), Massimo Pigliucci (City University of New York), Ullica Segerstrale (Illinois Institute of Technology), Rebecca Stott (University of East Anglia).
Special ISSR Symposium: Ottoline Leyser (University of Cambridge), Michael Ruse (Florida State University), Fraser Watts (University of Lincoln)
Public Lectures: Alister McGrath (University of Oxford), Michael Reiss (University of Cambridge)
Call for Papers
Short papers are invited on topics relevant to the conference themes, to be delivered in parallel sessions of 30 minutes duration (20-minute paper, 10 minutes discussion). Those wishing to contribute a paper should submit a title, a 300-word abstract that situates the proposed paper against its relevant scholarly backdrop, and institutional affiliation by email to irc.admin@theology.ox.ac.uk with the subject line “Science of Life Conference Abstract.”
Closing date for abstract submissions: Friday, 28th April
Notification of acceptance: Friday, 10 May
For questions on paper submissions, please contact donovan.schaefer@theology.ox.ac.uk.
Registration
All those wishing to attend are invited to register via the University of Oxford online shop available through the conference website. http://www.ianramseycentre.info/conferences/2017-religion-society-science-life.html
Research Interests: Religion, Cultural History, Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, Philosophy of Science, and 12 morePhilosophy of Biology, Philosophy Of Religion, Theology, Science Education, History of Science, Evolution of Religion, Science and Religion, Darwin, History of Science and Religion, Religious Studies, Philosophy and Religious Studies, and New Materialism
CFP: Religion, Society, and the Science of Life An interdisciplinary conference exploring how the life sciences intersect with the humanities. St. Anne’s College, Oxford, 19-22 July 2017 “There will never be a Newton for the blade of... more
CFP: Religion, Society, and the Science of Life
An interdisciplinary conference exploring how the life sciences intersect with the humanities.
St. Anne’s College, Oxford, 19-22 July 2017
“There will never be a Newton for the blade of grass,” Kant wrote in 1784, a quarter-century before the birth of Charles Darwin, and less than a half-century before the first synthesis of an organic compound in a laboratory. Life is an object of science, but an object like no other, presenting an unparalleled field of complexity and intricacy. A single cell contains an entire world. Biology is changing, with increasing recognition of how context influences even the most basic processes. This is why the science of life is distinctive among the sciences using history, narrative, and teleological explanations. All of this sets up fascinating resonances with the humanities. Can a convergence between the humanities and biology—from Darwin and Lamarck to holism and epigenetics—shed light on human societies, narratives, and religions? This interdisciplinary conference (a joint venture between the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion and the International Society for Science and Religion) will explore the implications of the life sciences for religion, values, morality, education, and meaning.
Plenary Speakers: Samantha Frost (University of Illinois), Massimo Pigliucci (City University of New York), Ullica Segerstrale (Illinois Institute of Technology), Rebecca Stott (University of East Anglia).
Special ISSR Symposium: Ottoline Leyser (University of Cambridge), Michael Ruse (Florida State University), Fraser Watts (University of Lincoln)
Public Lectures: Alister McGrath (University of Oxford), Michael Reiss (University of Cambridge)
Call for Papers
Short papers are invited on topics relevant to the conference themes, to be delivered in parallel sessions of 30 minutes duration (20-minute paper, 10 minutes discussion). Those wishing to contribute a paper should submit a title, a 300-word abstract that situates the proposed paper against its relevant scholarly backdrop, and institutional affiliation by email to irc.admin@theology.ox.ac.uk with the subject line “Science of Life Conference Abstract.”
Closing date for abstract submissions: Friday, 28th April
Notification of acceptance: Friday, 10 May
For questions on paper submissions, please contact donovan.schaefer@theology.ox.ac.uk.
Registration
All those wishing to attend are invited to register via the University of Oxford online shop available through the conference website. http://www.ianramseycentre.info/conferences/2017-religion-society-science-life.html
An interdisciplinary conference exploring how the life sciences intersect with the humanities.
St. Anne’s College, Oxford, 19-22 July 2017
“There will never be a Newton for the blade of grass,” Kant wrote in 1784, a quarter-century before the birth of Charles Darwin, and less than a half-century before the first synthesis of an organic compound in a laboratory. Life is an object of science, but an object like no other, presenting an unparalleled field of complexity and intricacy. A single cell contains an entire world. Biology is changing, with increasing recognition of how context influences even the most basic processes. This is why the science of life is distinctive among the sciences using history, narrative, and teleological explanations. All of this sets up fascinating resonances with the humanities. Can a convergence between the humanities and biology—from Darwin and Lamarck to holism and epigenetics—shed light on human societies, narratives, and religions? This interdisciplinary conference (a joint venture between the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion and the International Society for Science and Religion) will explore the implications of the life sciences for religion, values, morality, education, and meaning.
Plenary Speakers: Samantha Frost (University of Illinois), Massimo Pigliucci (City University of New York), Ullica Segerstrale (Illinois Institute of Technology), Rebecca Stott (University of East Anglia).
Special ISSR Symposium: Ottoline Leyser (University of Cambridge), Michael Ruse (Florida State University), Fraser Watts (University of Lincoln)
Public Lectures: Alister McGrath (University of Oxford), Michael Reiss (University of Cambridge)
Call for Papers
Short papers are invited on topics relevant to the conference themes, to be delivered in parallel sessions of 30 minutes duration (20-minute paper, 10 minutes discussion). Those wishing to contribute a paper should submit a title, a 300-word abstract that situates the proposed paper against its relevant scholarly backdrop, and institutional affiliation by email to irc.admin@theology.ox.ac.uk with the subject line “Science of Life Conference Abstract.”
Closing date for abstract submissions: Friday, 28th April
Notification of acceptance: Friday, 10 May
For questions on paper submissions, please contact donovan.schaefer@theology.ox.ac.uk.
Registration
All those wishing to attend are invited to register via the University of Oxford online shop available through the conference website. http://www.ianramseycentre.info/conferences/2017-religion-society-science-life.html
Research Interests: Religion, Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Psychology, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, and 14 morePhilosophy Of Religion, Theology, Science Education, Philosophical Theology, History of Science, Evolution of Religion, Psychology of Religion, Science and Religion, Theology and Science, Darwin, History of Science and Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Studies, and New Materialisms
Conference announcement and CFP for "A Postsecular Age?"
More information:
http://www.ianramseycentre.info/conferences/2016-postsecular-age-irc-conference.html
More information:
http://www.ianramseycentre.info/conferences/2016-postsecular-age-irc-conference.html
Research Interests: Religion, Sociology of Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Atheism, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), and 14 moreContinental Philosophy of Religion (Theology), Science and Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Politics of Secularism, History of Atheism, Secularisms and Secularities, Postsecularism (Sociology), History of Science and Religion, Secular, secularism and secularization, Secularism, New Atheism, Atheism/Secular Studies, Religion and secularism, and Anthropology of Religion
CFP for the 2015 Ian Ramsey Centre summer conference, 22-25 July at St Anne's College, Oxford.
Deadline for abstracts: April 14
Deadline for abstracts: April 14