METAMORPHOSES of Chris anity in Literature, Art and Philosophy
Willie van der Merwe and Laurens ten Kate invite you to the twel h Metamorphoses-seminar:
The Force of God: Toward a New Relationship between Democracy and Religious Imaginaries
A Seminar with Carl Raschke and Kurt Appel
• Information and Program: see other side
• 1st of December 2015, 10:00 -17:00
• Venue: University of Humanistic Studies Kromme Nieuwegracht 29, Utrecht. Room 1.15
• Participation is free but limited • Please register to: [email protected]
The project Metamorphoses… Carl A. Raschke (le ) is professor of Religious • is an ini a ve of Willie van der Merwe (professor of Studies at the University of Denver. He is Philosophy of Religion, VU University Amsterdam) and of specialized in con nental philosophy and the Laurens ten Kate (professor of Liberal Religion and theory of religion. He is an interna onally known Humanism, University of Humanis c Studies Utrecht) writer and academic on Chris anity, globaliza on, • a ims to offer an interdisciplinary research context for world religions and contemporary art. philosophers, theologians, art historians and literary Kurt Appel is professor of systema c and theorists fundamental theology at the University of Vienna, • aims to enter a dialogue with contemporary ar sts and and director of the Research pla orm ‘Religion and writers Transforma on in Contemporary European • b y establishing a pla orm for explora on and crea on Society’. His research focuses on the social-poli cal • in a series of seminars, debates, lectures and meaning of theology and on the development of a performances new humanism. English spoken The background to and inspira on of this twel h Metamorphoses seminar will be Carl Raschke’s recent book, The Force of God: Poli cal Theology and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy (Columbia University Press 2015). Raschke es democracy’s retreat to the West’s failure to confront its decadence and mobilize its vast spiritual resources. Drawing on the thought of Hegel and Nietzsche as well as recent work by Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Joseph Goux, Giorgio Agamben, and Alain Badiou, Raschke aims to recast a poli cal theology for the 21st century, grounded in a powerful, hidden impetus that Raschke coins as the ‘force of God’. This enables him to frame a new value economy and a cri cal theory that acknowledges a vital, spiritually grounded rela onship between poli cs and the religious imaginaries of determining our past and present.
Star ng from the themes and cri que developed in the book as presented and discussed by the author in his opening lecture, Kurt Appel in his lecture will engage in a broader analysis of the mutual metamorphoses between religion and present day democra c socie es.
A er both lectures there will be ample room for exchange, discussion and explora on of the possibility for future collabora on.
Program
10:00 - 10:15 Welcome (Coffee, Tea)
10:15 – 10:30: Introduc on by Willie van der Merwe and Laurens ten Kate
11:00 – 13.00: The Force of God, presenta on of the book by Carl Raschke, followed by discussion
13.00 – 14:00: Lunch
14:00 – 15:30 Religion and the Metamorphoses of Society, by Kurt Appel, followed by discussion
15:30 – 15:45: Coffee/tea
15:45 – 17:00: Conclusions and perspec ves for future collabora on.
This Metamorphoses-seminar has been organized with the financial support of the VU Research Ins tute CLUE+