Instructors: Barry Taylor, PhD
This course will unfold in the following four sessions:
Discussion sessions (both collectively with your peers in the course as well as a required tutorial meeting with the instructor to be scheduled at a time convenient for both you and the professor).
The first lecture/session will discuss early Western Christianity especially in the figures of Augustine of Hippo and the scholastic theologians including Thomas Aquinas. Regarding Augustine: we will examine his political theology from The City of God and subjective interiority from The Confessions. This discussion will bring in a platonic metaphysics vis-a-vis transcendence and immanence, subjective interiority, and the struggle over authority. We will discuss the theological-political problematic after the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Rome orthodoxy. We will move into a discussion of the early formations of monasteries and the rise of scholasticism. In regards to scholasticism we will trace out Aristotelianism vis-a-vis causal logics and theological reasoning.
Readings for Lecture 1:
Augustine, The City of God (excerpts-- PDF)
Augustine, The Confessions (Book 1, 2, and 10)
St. Benedicts Rule (entire text)
Aquinas, Summa Theologica (excerpts: Table of Contents, Question 1 to Question 13 (pages 1-95) -- PDF)
Lectures 2 and 3 are by Emmalea Russo.
Lecture 2 will examine Thomas Aquinas and medieval Scholasticism, the structure of the medieval summa, and questions of mediation, light, and hierarchy. We'll begin to discuss the writings of the 5th century Christian neoplatonist Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Readings: Selections from Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (PDF) Pseudo-Dionysius, "The Mystical Theology" (PDF)
Lecture 3 will discuss darkness mysticism and Georges Bataille's Summa Atheologica, a mystical trilogy written during World War II, mysticism after the death of God, and (un)mediated experience. We'll discuss Bataille's influences, including medieval Christian mystic Angela of Foligno, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Nietzsche, and the structure and content of his Summa, especially in relation to the medieval Summa.
Readings:
Georges Bataille, Inner Experience (introduction and part I): https://www.dirzon.com/Doc/ReaderAsync?target=telegram%3Ageorges-bataille-inner-experience-4.pdf
Eugene Thacker, "Divine Darkness," from Speculative Medievalisms (PDF)
Emmalea Russo, "The Dazzling" (PDF)
Lecture 4 by Barry Taylor will move into the 20th and 21st Century and examine the rise of “Radical Theology” within the North American and European contemporary context. This section of Radical Theology will offer an historical and contextual overview of the various streams in radical theological thought. The seminar will also address the potentials and possibilities Radical Theology offers those who are interested in redefining faith and community life in the 21st century.
Academic Level: (Year 1 MA and Participants from GCAS’ Online School)
Prerequisites: Some familiarity with theology and philosophy in the Western tradition from Athens to the present.
Required Texts (PDFs of other selected readings will be provided).
The Medieval Theologians, G.R. Evans (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001)
Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Hackett Publishing Company; 4th edition (June 15, 1999).
Thomas J.J. Altizer. "The Call to Radical Theology”, (Suny Press 2012)
Simon Critchely, “Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology, (Verso 2012)
J.W. Robbins and Clayton Crockett, A Radical Theology for the Future: Five Theses (Palgrave, 2015)
John D. Caputo, In Search of Radical Theology, (Fordham University Press, 2020)
Learning and Teaching Methods:
Lectures (previously recorded and live)
Discussion sessions participants/students will read the material and engage with the Pre-session recordings and come to the discussion/session times ready to ask research queries and engage in a discussion with the instructors and other participants.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
To critically understand the contours of Philosophical Theology and it’s important sub-topics and thematics.
To understand the relationship between medieval thinking and modern thinking.
To develop and deploy advanced critical understandings of justifying transcendent truth-claims and their justification (epistemological, social, and existential).
Themes:
Interiority Creston Davis Lecture 1
Scholasticism/Mysticism Emmalea Russo Lecture 2 and 3
Exteriority Russo Lecture 3
Materialism Taylor Lecture 4
Assessments:
The student will be assessed in all aspects of this course through the following means:
Students will be assessed through reflection papers and participation.
European Credit: If you would like to take this seminar for 3 ECTS credits please contact us @ <contact@gcas.ie>
Format: Online via GCAS’ Zoom Platform
Schedule: November 5, 12, 19, 26 at 1pm New York time (Saturdays).
Seminar Description:
The seminar will introduce the student to the key concepts and ideas within the academic subject, “Philosophical Theology” broadly construed. The field of philosophical theology emerged in the wake of a dispute between the relationship between reason and faith relative to truth claims about the world and other transcendent phenomena.
Financial Assistance for non-credit seeking students and student who wish to fulfill the requirements for the GCAS Radical Theology Certificate Programme.