Saturday, April 28, 2007

Al Wolters on the meaning of "reformational"


I have been rereading Al Wolters Creation Regained. He spends some time discussing the meaning of the word "reformational" which compliments nicely the Seerveld quote I posted a while back.

Wolters notes two important connotations of the word ‘reformational’:

The first is this; reformation means sanctification, not consecration. Both words mean "making holy," but they are not strictly synonymous. To sanctify (or hallow, to use an Anglo-Saxon word) means "to make free from sin, to cleanse from moral corruption, to purify." To consecrate, on the other hand, generally means simply ‘to set apart, to dedicate, to devote to the service or worship of God.’ Consecration therefore means external renewal; sanctification means internal renewal. The word reformation refers to sanctification in this sense of inner revitalization (p.89)

A second feature of reformation is that the avenue of this sanctification is progressive renewal rather than violent overthrow … God calls his people to a historical reformation … to a sanctification of creational realities from sin and its effects. (p.91)


Negatively Wolters contrasts this strategy with revolution; the positive meaning of reformation, he states:
entails that the normative elements in any distorted situation (and every situation is distorted to some extent) should be sought out as a point of contact in terms of which renewal can take place … reformation always takes as its point of departure what is historically given and seeks to build on the good rather than clearing the historical terrain radically in order to lay an altogether new foundation. (p.93)

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Zizek a hypothesis


David’s lecture the other night was really good and has had me thinking about Zizek’s ideas a lot. What follows is, in platonic terms, art, or in other words imitation of imitation.

Zizek is involved in a battle of ideas against Buddhism and all neo-paganisms. Such ideas give absolute priority to unity so that diversity comes to be seen as illusory and possibility even evil. Our individual existence itself and all that it is caught up with will return as in a cycle to the unity from which it came [in Vollenhoven’s terms this is Universalism or Mysticism]. Zizek however is an advocate for difference. He sees an ontology of unity as having terrifying moral consequences, even going so far as to evoke the Holocaust as an example of the kind of loss of moral conscious that such an ontology brings.

Zizek is interested in Christianity for a number of reasons. He believes that the “Christian experience” is necessary to being an atheist and he sees the “Judeo-Christian logic” as the best defence against Buddhism. David focused more on the former but said enough on the latter to provoke my hypothesis. It draws on the reminder that David gave us part way through his lecture. With the focus firmly on religion, and Christianity in particular, David reminded us that Zizek’s starting point is, nevertheless, as a materialist in the Marxist sense.

Now there seem to be two elements to the “Christian logic” that attracts Zizek. The first is that redemption means breaking the cycle of sin, Christianity is therefore a religion of rupture, of the Event or of the Other. His analysis of Jesus’ death is, however, mainly taken up with his claim about the “Christian experience” and atheism rather than redemption. David pointed out that Zizek disappointingly dismisses Jesus’ resurrection as a group hallucination, spiritualising the very material centrepiece of the Christian faith. The second element to the “Christian logic” that Zizek appeals to is the Holy Spirit as a force which brings community, Zizek though has no time for the church.

My hypothesis then is that Zizek is a Young Hegelian. Despite his avowed materialism Zizek has lost faith in the revolutionary community of the proletariat and fears Buddhism rather than capitalism. His appropriation of Christianity consists of an abstracted revolutionary logic, a dematerialised resurrection and an idea of community striped of its material embodiment. Might it not be the case that Zizek is only fighting phrases with phrases?
I expect this hypothesis is a little over stated, but it will be interesting to test it when I get the chance to read some of Zizek's work.
Later: David has posted on his lecture here.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Who the Heck is Zizek?


Well he is the fellow on the left.
David Henningham is giving a short lecture on Zizek as part of the Universettee series. David has just attended some master classes lead by Zizek so is now the local expert. He is also a rather bright fellow, so should be good.
David has written some interesting posts on the master classes 1, 2, 3 & 4

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Wilberforce and Normative Politics



As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to see the film Amazing Grace. I must say I enjoyed it, perhaps it was just the novelty of going to the cinema, or even seeing a film which I haven't done much of lately. I liked the way Wilberforce was shown to have a broad range of political concerns beyond his driving passion to end slavery. There was a scene where Thomas Clarkson tries to persuade Wilberforce to embrace the revolutionary politics then going on in France, but Wilberforce is quite adamantly opposed to such an approach. I am hoping that The Wiberforce Connection might give further insight into his approach to politics. My fear is that the "Wilberforce model", while inviting prophetic opposition to the many injustices in the world, lacks the kind of positive normative vision that is needed to confront the complex issues we face today.

A really helpful starting point would be to ask what the task of the state is. This is vital if we are to hold the state to account as a servant of God, while also giving due regard to the responsibilities of other social institutions like families, businesses, schools and churches as well as the role of individual citizens. I just don't see Christians in Britain asking these kinds of questions. Hopefully Jonathan Chaplin will be able to prompt such necessary thinking. Without a view that clearly differentiates the kind of responsibility and authority that is proper for the state we will end up with all sorts of unrealistic expectations and muddled thinking.



An example of this is Julia Manning's contribution to The Difference on "Health and Stewardship" where she writes that "The government has the responsibility to provide for the health of the nation. Yet it also has the responsibility of maintaining economic vibrancy". While the government has some kind of responsibility towards public health, it is a limited and specific kind of responsibility that needs to be viewed along side the responsibilities of health care institutions, families, schools etc. which each have an important role to play. So we need some positive delineation of these diverse, but reinforcing social responsibilities.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Christian Political Thought in the UK



While in Exeter I came across this new magazine. They have a blog here. I also saw the film Amazing Grace, so I am thinking about the nature of Christian political thought here in the UK. What can I, as a novice reformational political thinker, contribute?


As a start here are some critical notes on Kay Carter's editorial:

She presents the issue of Christianity and politics in terms of a relationship falling apart, employing the metaphor of a divorce, but the terms of this relationship are very unclear. She begins by saying that "Britain and Christianity have grown apart", then refers to the growing gap between the "statute books" and "Christian values" and by the beginning of her second paragraph is addressing "the Church" as the divorcee with a choice to make. There are then real questions as to who we are to have a dialogue with, and who "we" are that might participate or instigate this dialogue.

One possible answer is that the dialogue is between church/es and state, but such a dialogue is already going on and The Difference is non-denominational. Perhaps it is best to read "the Church" not institutionally but as the body of believers. The implication then appears to be that 'Christianity' and 'politics' are, at least potentially, self-contained spheres that should nevertheless talk to each other. Now it may well be true that such an implication was not intended, but it is there nevertheless and until Christians start to think through and discuss politics as an integral and specific part of our responsibility to love God and serve one’s neighbour we will be stuck with a purely external moral approach rather than an internal normative one.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Reformational Philosophy and Critical Theory


What do reformational philosophy and critical theory have in common? On reading James Boham’s article in the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy a few things come to mind.

Critical theorists have seen a close link between philosophy and the social sciences. This link is seen mainly in terms of linking normativity and empirical research, which is different from the way Reformational philosophy sees the link. For reformational philosophy the special sciences, of whatever sort, require, or better, have, philosophical presuppositions. There is no distinction between norms and facts that need to be brought together by philosophy (actually critical theory may accept this or at least point in this direction), instead the special sciences should become more aware of their philosophical assumptions, which themselves point beyond any theoretical view to basic religious commitments.

Returning to the issue of normativity, this appears to be another area of similarity. Both emphasis the importance of norms and their universality, but also both seek to see these norms contextualised within different spheres. For critical theory these spheres are different sorts of empirical social research, for reformational philosophy these are basic “life spheres”. This contextual kind of normativity must also, for both, be understood in relation to specific historical circumstances without being reduced to such.

To finish with a third similarity it seems to me that the critical theorist's desire to help effect social transformation of current circumstances is also shared by those in the reformational tradition.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Marx and Critical Theory


This year I am teaching Marx and Engels The German Ideology. So I have been doing some reading on Marx. I seem to be gaining an interest in political philosophy, so with my background in European Philosophy I guess it's not surprising that I am also reading around in Critical Theory. In particular critical theory provides an interesting discussion partner with so called "postmodern" philosophy.
All this makes me anticipate the publication of the following two books even more keenly.
Bob Goudzwaard Hope in Troubled Times
Lambert Zuidervaart Social Philosophy After Adorno

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

James Skillen and Dooyeweerd publishing

I seem to be quite busy these days. On Saturday I was up in Leeds for a meeting about the project to publish Dooyeweerd's collected works. Jim Skillen is overseeing a comprehensive reassessment of the whole project. It was good to meet with people who share an interest in Dooyeweerd's work, unfortunately Jim was delayed in getting to Leeds and I needed to catch a train back to London.

I had been looking forward to meeting Jim, not just to hear about the current state of the publishing project but also because I have been readings his recent two books on politics.
As always, I came back to London convinced of the vital importance of the work that David and Ruth, along with the WYSOCS team, are doing and wanting to find more ways to play my part. It was also in Leeds that I first learnt that a certain novice philosopher will be ending his noviciate here in London with the LSE. There seem to be a number of things coming together ...

Thursday, March 01, 2007

The Reformational Publishing Project



This is an exciting new venture to keep an eye on. Kerry Hollingsworth annouced the project at the international symposium on Ethics in 2005, so it is good to see things progressing. The criteria for selection of titles is that the work in question demonstrate a clear utilization of the systematics of the Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea, with the first work to appear being Egbert Schuurman's Technology and The Future. This work will be followed by the Collected Writings of H. Evan Runner, with other works currently in preperation including Willem Ouweneel’s Heart and Soul and Marcel Verburg's intellectual biography of Dooyeweerd entitled Herman Dooyeweerd: The Life and Work of a Dutch Christian-Philosopher. More information here.

Monday, February 26, 2007

The Christian Studies Unit

I have just recieved some papers and a book from Richard Russell's Christian Studies Unit. It takes be back to my university days when I was discovering reformational thought and often ordered books and papes from Richard. There are a lot of people out there who owe Richard a lot for the work he has done promoting "reffie" books. If your not one of them, then take a look and you soon will be.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Visual Encounters and Artistic Practice

WYSOCS are keeping up their good work in this their 21st year. I believe this is the first residential course they have put on.
Here's some infomation:
THIS WORKSHOP IS DESIGNED TO:
Encourage students to develop their artistic work imaginatively in relation to God’s creation and their individual talents.

Support and encourage those thinking about careers in art and design through teaching, networking, sharing of resources.

Help students think through their position in relation to current debates within art colleges and the arts in general.

Drawing and mark-making, observation and interpretation are central to the course, which is suitable for students, whether engaged in degree studies at art college, or on pre-degree courses such as Foundation, Access or A levels. Recent graduates/art teachers would also find this helpful in relation to their thinking as Christians.
More infomation here.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Vollenhoven's Problem-Historical Method: A Bibliography



Following Steve Bishops good example, here is a bibliography of English-language work related to Vollenhoven's Problem-Historical Method:
Brill, K A. "A Comparision between Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven on the Historiography of Philosophy" Philosophia Reformata 60:2 (1995)

Brill, K A. Vollenhoven's Problem-Historical Method: Introduction and Explorations (Dordt College Press, 2005)

Olthuis and DeGraaff. Models of Man in Theology and Psychology (ICS, 1978)

Seerveld, Calvin. Benedetto Croce's earlier Aesthetic theories and Literary criticism (J.H. Kok, 1958)

Seerveld, Calvin. "Biblical wisdom underneath Vollenhoven's categories for philosophical historiography" Philosophia Reformata 38 (1973)

Seerveld, Calvin. "The Pedagogical Strength of a Christian Methodology in Philosophical Historiography" Crosscuts and Perspectives Koers 40:4-6 (1975)

Seerveld, Calvin. "Towards a cartographic methodology for art historiography" Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 39:2 (1980)

Seerveld, Calvin. "Mythologizing Philosophy as Historiographic Category" Myth and Interdisciplinary Studies (Pretoria, 1993)

Seerveld, Calvin. "Vollenhoven's legacy for art historiography" Philosophia Reformata 58:1 (1993)

Steen, Peter. The Structure of Herman Dooyeweerd's Thought (Wedge, 1983)

Runner, Evan. The History of Ancient Philosophy (1958) a partial translation of Vollenhoven, D.H.Th. Geshiedenis der wijsbegeerte I

Runner, Evan. The Development of Aristotle Illustrated from the Earliest Books of the Physics (J.H. Kok, 1951)

Wolters. A. "On Vollenhoven's Problem-Historical Method" in Hearing and Doing
(Wedge, 1979)

Vander Stelt, John. "Kuyper's semi-mystical conception" Philosophia Reformata 38 (1973)

Van der Walt. B.J. "Historiography of Philosophy: the consistent problem-historic method" in Heartbeat (Potchefstroom, 1978)

Vollenhoven, D.H.Th. "Lecture notes on Kant (1958-9)" Translated by Bill Rowe (ICS, 1977)
­
Vollenhoven, D.H.Th. Ancient Philosophical Conceptions in Problem-historical Lay-out, 6th Century B.C - 6th Century A.D. Edited with an introduction by A. Tol

­­­Vollenhoven, D.H.Th. The History of Ancient Philosophy (1958) a partial translation by Evan Runner of Vollenhoven, D.H.Th. Geshiedenis der wijsbegeerte I

Vollenhoven, D.H.Th. The Problem-Historical Method and the History of Philosophy Edited by Kornelis A. Bril (De Zaak Haes, 2005)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Amazing Grace


This year marks the 200th annaversary of the Slave Trade Act which abolished slave trade in the British empire.


In commenoration of this a film has been made about William Willberforce. Here's the description for the film:


Amazing Grace is based on the true story of William Wilberforce, a British statesman and reformer from the early part of the 19th century. This feature film chronicles his extraordinary contributions to the world, primarily his 20-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, which he won in 1807. Wilberforce was also instrumental in passing legislation to abolish slavery in the British colonies, a victory he won just three days before his death in 1833.

Monday, February 12, 2007

The Urban Christian


A group from my church are reading through The Urban Christian by Ray Bakke. It is part of Grace Church Hackney's vision to be an urban church. Number Four of the five "Things we think are important" is:
The Gospel leads us to love the city. Therefore we will seek to be an urban church celebrating all that is good about the city and working to change all that is not good. We hope to partner with chritians already involved in social projects and to be a church where people are encouraged to engage with the culture of the city, particularly the arts.
This has got me thinking about what reformational resources are there for thinking about the city, and what kind of questions should guide our reflection.
Resources that come to mind are:
and Wolterstorff's "A City of Delight" in Until Justice and Peace Embrace
I'll have to think more about the questions that need asking.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Johann Hari on the Enlightenment

Johann Hari writing in the Independent on Monday appears to be rather enamoured of the enlightenment. The enlightenment philosophers argued that “instead of relying on divine revelation, we should closely observe the world around us and base a rational world-view on the empirical evidence we gather.” This is, so Hari believes, a truly wonderful vision. Those who oppose it like the Chapmans, whose work Hari rightly deplores, are basically in league with the “fascists and priests” who have sort to puncture and destroy it for the past 300 years. So unequivocal is Hari’s enthusiasm that he confidently declares that “Everything good about our world … comes from this project”.

This leads him to dismiss “post-modern” philosophy, of which the Chapmans work is apparently the “pure expression”. According to Hari “When you strip away our Enlightenment defences against psychosis” all you are left with is “immoral anger, celebrating injustice and cruelty as ‘transgression’”. This raises a number of questions. Can enlightenment thought really be neatly separated from all the bloody revolutions, fascisms, imperialisms and totalitarianisms that were a feature of modernist Europe? Was it really Hitler’s failure, as Hari seems to suggest, to “scrupulously adhere to fact, evidence and reason-based inferences” that produced the Nazi monster?

Hari is obviously not aware of the thesis of the dialectic of enlightenment where instrumentalized reason becomes irrational. Nor does he seem to realize that the kind of faith in facts and empirical evidence that he so applauds in enlightenment thought actually undermines his own moral critique of post-modernism. David Hume divorced facts from values and A.J.Ayer's philosophy of “scrupulous adherence to fact, evidence and reason-based inferences” led to the claim that moral judgements are strictly meaningless – a bit of a pain if you want to condemn the torture and destruction of human life.

So while Hari is right to criticise the facile rejection of the enlightenment expressed in the Chapmans work, he would do well temper his rather extravagant faith in the facts alone.

Speaking from Faith in Democracy

Jonathan Chaplin's inaugural lecture for the Kirby Laing Institute "Speaking from Faith in Democracy" is now available on-line.

Friday, February 09, 2007

The end of Philosophy of Mind?


Does this mean I won't need to teach philosophy of mind next year?

Ice Day?

No photos today, as I don't seem to be able to find any ice. Nevertheless, arriving at school this morning fully equipped with my football kit for the customary Friday-after-school game, I was rather surprised to find the gates all locked and notices that the dangerous icy conditions meant the school was closed.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Snow day!


School was closed today due to snow, Hurrah! It doesn't take much to disrupt life here in London.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Some Links

Joel Hunter on Derrida here.

Gideon Strauss has an excellent piece on postmodernism here.

Richard Mouw has just started to blog.

Macht on Emergent Properties, Abstraction and Reductionism.

And some study guides on Dooyeweerd’s :

Christian idea of the state ,

Twilight of Western Thought,

Roots of Western Culture ,

and New Critique.

So there are no excuses now!