Christian Atheism
Not a course on Christianity or Atheism, but Christian Atheism!
This fall Philosophy Portal will be focused on teaching its first full course based around a concept as opposed to a classical modern philosophical text. The concept Christian Atheism is absolutely integral for our moment, as it is the perfect way to both break the one-sidedness of the debate between Christians and Atheists, religious and secular society, as well as identify what it is about the Christian religion specifically, that has left a distinct impression and influence on the Western mind. In short, the concept Christian Atheism holds the contradiction between the two terms and attempts to open new ways of thinking, opposed to offering a complete or total worldview.
The course itself will be exploring a specific thesis: that the history of modern philosophy is, unbeknownst to itself and our current intellectual discourse, exploring the possibility of a Christian Atheist project. In this way this course is not about Christianity or Atheism but about the way in which modern philosophy can be understood to be holding both in a tension with itself. We will be exploring:
- German Idealism (the works of Kant, Schelling, Hegel)
- Hegelo-Marxism (Political-Economy, Communism-Capitalism)
- Nietzschean Existentialism (Death of God Theology)
- Freudo-Lacanian Psychoanalysis (Unconscious Psyche)
- Thomas Altizer's Gospel (Death of God as Project)
- Slavoj Žižek's Philosophy (Transcendentalism to Quantum Physics)
- Peter Rolins' Theology (Church of the Contradiction)
In this way we will be not only developing the thesis that the history of modern philosophy is exploring the possibility of a Christian Atheist project, but also bringing this project to reflection in the actual works of contemporary theorists like Slavoj Žižek and Peter Rollins. Moreover, we will have four guest lectures in the course to supplement the course materials from:
- Slavoj Žižek
- Peter Rollins
- Barry Taylor
- Mark Gerard Murphy
To learn more about the course, or to sign up today, check the link below:
Christian Atheism