On Simone Weil: Christopher Yates Leads Guest Seminar

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Christopher Yates on Simone WeilExamining the Theology of a Radical Witness

On February 8, Christopher Yates led a seminar discussion on Simone Weil. Using passages from Weil’s writing, Yates contemplated impressions of her life and ideas using the following seven guiding principles found in her work: devotion to intellectual honesty, the interplay between belief and certainty, proximity to unbelievers, divinely-inspired worldly order, susceptibility to false beauties, the love of neighbor, and obedience. For Weil, Yates argues, there is no separation between theological commitment and practices. The end game then is dedicating the highest form of our attention to God, turning from the idols of the world to redemption and righteousness through active prayer. 

In his discussion of participating in God’s love for the world through neighbor relations, Yates expounds:

“If Simone Weil is correct… justice means the right relationships among all things. I think this relates to social justice, the active restoration of right relationships, because after all, what does the beauty of the world tell us? That it has a beautiful order that relates to the love of God. Now the beautiful ordering of social relationships is the task of justice. That is why she goes to work in a factory and goes on hunger strikes among other things to be an agent of justice, whereas charity is giving from a distance. Today, there’s a lot of ways to do this… Just as she doesn’t want us to approach the truth of God from a distance, a comfortable enlightenment distance, she doesn’t want us to approach the neighbor from a distance. So there’s a just way of thinking and a just way of living for Weil.”

Listen to the full lecture through its resource page here.

Christopher Yates is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts and an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. 

For more event details and up-to-date event listings please click here to visit the PLT Events page. We also post updates online using #PLTevents. To get these and other news updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Modern Religion, Modern Race

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Modern Religion, Modern Race by Theodore VialUnderstanding their Connection

Theodore Vial calls religion and race “conjoined twins” in the first line of his recent book,
Modern Religion, Modern Race. These two concepts were born together and became key conceptual categories that have shaped the modern world. In the past, scholars charting the intellectual genealogies of the ideas of race and religion have often stopped at the enlightenment, but Vial persuasively argues that to fully understand the development of both concepts, post-enlightenment Germany needs to be considered as well. The book offers new perspectives on the writings and thoughts of a number of nineteenth-century thinkers, including Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottfield Herder, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Max Müller. Ultimately, Vial concludes that race cannot be disentangled from the study of religion.

Reviews and endorsements of the publication include:

“Theodore Vial’s groundbreaking text on religion, race, and modernity is the most insightfully thought-out, clearly written, and invitingly compelling of all the recent publications on this subject. Clarity of argument represents clarity of thinking. And his, indeed, is a new voice in the field. He proves to us what we’ve all missed: the post-Kantian context and the decisiveness of language in how the West wedded race and religion.”-Dwight N. Hopkins, author of Being Human: Race, Culture, and Religion

“Modern Religion, Modern Race is a smart, nuanced, and accessible study of the birth of the twin concepts of ‘religion’ and ‘race’ in the modern world. With historical sensitivity and philosophical acumen, Theodore Vial traces the simultaneous development of these two concepts and brings his analysis to bear upon the contemporary, and often violent, ways in which these ideas continue to shape our world. Readers have much to gain from this thoughtful study.”-Leora Batnitzky, author of How Judaism Became a Religion: An Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought

For more information on the publication, click here.

Fellow travelers are scholars, activists, and practitioners that embody the ideals and commitments of the Project on Lived Theology. We admire their work and are grateful to be walking alongside them in the development and dissemination of Lived Theology.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. For more recommended resources from our fellow travelers, click here, #PLTfellowtravelers. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Breaking White Supremacy

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Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel, Gary DorrienMartin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel

The prophetic witness of Martin Luther King Jr. did not arise spontaneously, social ethicist Gary Dorrien argues in his new book Breaking White Supremacy. Instead, the activism and ministry of King and other civil rights leaders was part of a long tradition of the black social gospel. Using a cross disciplinary approach, Dorrien deals with social ethics, theology, politics and intellectual history to examine the lives of King, Howard Thurman, Benjamin Mays, Pauli Murray, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and a host of other black religious leaders. This book is a follow-up to Dorrien’s 2017 The New Abolition: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel, which won the Grawemeyer Award in religion. The cumulative effect of both works is to make a strong case that the black social gospel Christian tradition has had a more lasting influence than the better known white social gospel movement.

Reviews and endorsements of the publication include:

“In this follow up to The New Abolition, Gary Dorrien proves that a sequel can be on par with or even better than the original. Anyone seeking to understand Black religious thought in the era of Black Lives Matter would do well to start here.”—Andre E. Johnson, University of Memphis

“Monumental and meticulous, this is a fascinating work of intellectual history. Dorrien’s great contribution is to name and to illuminate a tradition— the Black social gospel—that had no name.”—William D. Hart, Macalester College

“This must-read book masterfully tells the stories of African American Christian leaders struggling for racial justice and social democracy in the twentieth century. A powerful inspiration for religious activists today.”—Vincent Lloyd, Villanova University

For more information on the publication, click here.

Fellow travelers are scholars, activists, and practitioners that embody the ideals and commitments of the Project on Lived Theology. We admire their work and are grateful to be walking alongside them in the development and dissemination of Lived Theology.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. For more recommended resources from our fellow travelers, click here, #PLTfellowtravelers. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

PLT Contributor Christopher Yates to Lead Guest Seminar

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Chris Yates WeilOn Simone Weil

On Thursday, February 8, Professor Christopher S. Yates will present a guest lecture on Simone Weil’s “Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God.” The presentation is scheduled for 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. in Nau Hall 211. Admission is free, and the public is invited to attend.

For more information on additional resources and occasional lectures, click here.

Christopher Yates is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts and an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

For more event details and up-to-date event listings please click here to visit the PLT Events page. We also post updates online using #PLTevents. To get these and other news updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.