Archive for March, 2008

Mystery, Gift, and Love

Published by
DWM
at March 30, 2008 3 Comments

Aron made me agree to post my paper before he’d let me put his up. If you haven’t listened to his yet, please do. It’s not only a great introduction to Lacan, but also an interesting theological reflection. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.. or at least, you shouldn’t be.

So, here’s my presentation from this year’s AAR MidAtlantic Regional conference. This is pretty much the same paper that Cynthia posted on Per Caritatem a couple months ago - Thanks again, Cynthia! I had a great response in the Q&A time, but failed to record it. Anyway, let us know what you think about all this podcasting stuff. I’m thinking about getting a better mic than the one that comes with the macbook, but would like to know if this stuff is relevant or even helpful to the lot of you before I invest in it.

Cheers,

Dan

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The Paradoxical Nature of the Subject’s Extimate Core

Published by
DWM
at March 28, 2008 5 Comments

Aron gave a great paper yesterday, and I secretly recorded it. If you use itunes, you’ll be able to see a couple pictures that I snapped of him during the presentation.

Have a nice weekend,

-dan

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TLOU goes to Jersey

Published by
DWM
at March 24, 2008 0 Comments

Hey peeps,

Aron and I will be slumming in New Brunswick on Thursday at the MidAtlantic Conference of the American Academy of Religion. I have no idea what Aron’s talking about, but I’d guess it’s Harry Potter or death or something vaguely sexual or despondent. Very psycho-analysis sheik.

I’m rehashing Thomas and de Lubac, so those of you that read Per Caritatem will have heard this spiel before. I’m hoping to get some good feedback, and maybe turn it into a review article of his Mystery of the Supernatural for publication… we’ll see.

Hope to see some of you there.

Dan

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Call for Respondents - The 2008 Sergei Bulgakov Blog Conference

Published by
DWM
at March 23, 2008 8 Comments

I’d like to thank everyone who has offered to participate in the 2008 Bulgakov Blog Conference. We’ve had a ton of really positive response in the last week, and AD and I are really exciting about what we think is going to be a brilliant event due to the fantastic essays that we already have slated (see below). However, with so many papers, some dealing with similar topics, we’ve decided to go with a session format to accomodate two papers for each theme. It will probably go something like this: each day, two essays will be presented, followed at the end of the day with a response. This way, I think we will be cover a lot of ground quickly. Of course, we will most likely have some single paper sessions, which will proceed in the usual style.

What we really need now is for folks to sign up as respondents. Again, you’re welcome to shoot me an email, or just respond to this post. Please include your name as you’d like it to appear, the session you’d like to respond to, and whatever university or website you’d like your name linked to… woops, hanging infinitive… to which you’d like your name linked.

Our Current Session Roster

Introduction
Cynthia Nielsen (Per Caritatem) - “An introduction to Bulgakov”

Ecclesiology and Eucharist
Halden Doerge (Inhabitatio Dei) - “Eucharist, Eschatology, and World in the Ecclesiology of Bulgakov”.
Gregory Voiles (Catholic University of America) - “The Divine Humanity of the Church”

Respondent: Joshua Brockway (Catholic University of America)

Apollinaris
Matthew J. Aragon Bruce (Princeton Theological Seminary) - “The Preface on Apollinaris”
Henry Karlson (Vox Nova) - “Bulgakov and Apollinarius”

Sophiology
Aron Dunlap (The Land of Unlikeness) - Sophiology
Maximus Daniel Greeson (Paideia) - “Vladimir Lossky’s Critique of Bulgakov’s Sophiology”
J. David Belcher (La Perruque) - “The ‘Interpenetrability’ of Divine and Creaturely Sophia: Freedom and Synergeia in Bulgakov’s Sophiology”

Mariology
M. Sophia Compton (St. Paul’s School of Theology, Kansas City) - “The Burning Bush and Bulgakov’s Kataphatic Theology”
Scott Sharman (University of Toronto-St. Michael’s College) - “Hypostatic Motherhood and the Mother of God”

Pneumatology
David W. Congdon (The Fire and the Rose) - Pneumatology
Kyle Bennett (Fuller Seminary) - “The Coming of the Comforter: The Holy Spirit’s Role in the Parousia of Christ according to Sergius Bulgakov and Jurgen Moltmann”

Theurgy and Aesthetics
Joshua Delpech-Ramey (The Land of Unlikeness) - “Sophiology and Magic: Renaissance Precursors to Bulgakov”
Dan McClain (The Land of Unlikeness) - “Art & Politics”

Respondent: Janet Leslie Blumberg (Deep Grace of Theory)

Still to be boxed in by a theme.
Ben Boswell (Catholic University of America)
Brendan Sammon (The Well at the World’s End)

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Balthasar’s Creational Aesthetics

Published by
DWM
at March 19, 2008 0 Comments

My essay for the 2008 von Balthasar Blog Conference has been posted today here. I greatly encourage and welcome any and all feedback. Further, please share your thoughts and thanks with David for pulling this great event together.

thanks.

Dan

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von Balthasar blog conference

Published by
DWM
at March 18, 2008 0 Comments

David began the von Balthasar blog conference last night over at The Fire and the Rose with the following introduction:

In a world where we are bombarded by seemingly endless amounts of information, I trust this conference will offer something distinct and interesting. While blogs have been disparaged (often rightly) by academics, I hope this experiment demonstrates that theo-blogging can be a place for academically rigorous and theologically sophisticated work. More importantly, in a conference examining the interrelation between theology and exegesis, I hope most of all that these essays provoke us to return to the text anew for a fresh hearing of God’s Word. May we gain a greater appreciation for what von Balthasar accomplished, and, following his example, learn to cultivate a faith that always seeks understanding.

My contribution will be posted tomorrow. In the meantime, definitely head on over and read the inaugural posts, here and here. Lois Miles has a great piece on von Balthasar’s reliance upon the contemplative mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr. The essay gives a nice biography of their relationship, including a bit on the creation of von Speyr’s commentaries on Scripture. Cynthia Nielsen, in her usual exemplary style, helps us understand Balthasar’s insight that aesthetics and hermeneutics can not be separated without comprising the wholeness of the Scripture - “a recovery of theologico-aesthetic sensibilities that had been lost with certain modernist interpretive currents.”

By all means, please engage these authors by commenting. I think this format of blog conference is a unique opportunity for scholars around the globe to extend the theological conversations that just aren’t (unfortunately) getting air time in places like AAR and the like. Additionally, the kind of interaction that has already begun exhibits a kind of charity that is as rare in the larger, more established venues. As David mentions, the blog medium hasn’t garnered the best reputation among the academic elite. Hopefully our fellowship will help change that perception.

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Call for Papers - Sergii Bulgakov Blog Conference, September 2008 - Updated

Published by
admin
at March 15, 2008 19 Comments

BulgakovIn his aptly titled essay, “On the Holy Grail,” Sergei Bulgakov meditates on the meaning of the verse in John where Christ’s side is pierced with a spear and “blood and water flow out.” Bulgakov’s thesis is straightforward: It is not the legendary grail of Western mythos that is interesting or vital, but rather the fact that when Jesus spills his blood upon the earth, the earth is charged and changed and maintains the seeds of its own transfiguration even when Christ dies, descends, and ascends to heaven. Clearly, the church has always maintained that Christ is present in the Eucharist and in the Spirit which he bequeaths, but Bulgakov thinks that the fact that this presence resides also in the earth itself, which is the holy grail, needs to be thought about much more seriously. He argues that this seed of transfiguration is none other than the Heavenly Sophia getting to work in nature, achieving her destiny in her Creaturely Image. This destiny reaches its origin and goal in the perfect picture of creation which exists with God eternally (and which is the essence of God). In the West it is talked about as the goodness of nature beneath the bentness of man’s will.

Here at the Land of Unlikeness, we could think of no better way to break into Bulgakov’s Sophia thesis than to join forces with the rest of you and throw a Sergei Bulgakov Blog Conference to be held in September later this year. The details are still sketchy, but we already have a few participants and many others are pondering. More participation is welcome, both in the form of a 1500 word contribution or in the form of a response to a post. Please send your contribution ideas to editor at thelandofunlikeness.com, or simply reply to this thread. Stay tuned for more details in the very near future.

The (Tentative and Still Growing) Lineup

Matthew J. Aragon Bruce (Princeton Theological Seminary) - “The Preface on Apollinaris”
Ben Boswell (Catholic University of America)
David W. Congdon (The Fire and the Rose)
Cynthia Nielsen (Per Caritatem) - “An introduction to Bulgakov”
Halden Doerge (Inhabitatio Dei) - “Eucharist, Eschatology, and World in the Ecclesiology of Bulgakov”.
Respondent: Joshua Brockway (Catholic University of America)
Aron Dunlap (The Land of Unlikeness) - Sophiology
Maximus Daniel Greeson (Paideia) - “Vladimir Lossky’s Critique of Bulgakov’s Sophiology”
Dan McClain (The Land of Unlikeness)
Brendan Sammon (The Well at the World’s End)
Scott Sharman (University of Toronto-St. Michael’s College) - “Hypostatic Motherhood and the Mother of God”
Gregory Voiles (Catholic University of America) - “The Divine Humanity of the Church”

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Death Shall Make Life His Dominion: Victor Vazquez

Published by
DWM
at March 10, 2008 4 Comments

Legs with bonesVictor Vazquez portrays Carribean culture through a dusty sepia lense. His images are riddled with shadows and dark recesses hiding the ghosts of Puerto Rican and island culture. These images, although employing local symbols, embody the universal problems of life and death, sex and birth, acculturation and isolation. His subjects are nearly always nude, and mainly women. They appear to be asleep or dead. Their passivity is the background to their persecution. Vazquez’s Liquids and Signs depicts living organisms oppressed by artificial sexual objects, genitalia, blades, and swimming sperm drawn large on their bodies. Sex, in these images, is not a life-producing event, but rather ravages its subjects. Sex brings death and affliction.

Continue reading ‘Death Shall Make Life His Dominion: Victor Vazquez’

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Why I love No Country

Published by
A.D.
at March 1, 2008 7 Comments

The movie begins with us inside the voice of the old, soon to retire sheriff, and though ostensibly the action occurs elsewhere, we realize at the end of the film that we’ve never left this voice, in fact we’ve fallen deeper into its Texan cracks, even into its dreams. How do we know this? We know this because, like a sheriff, and unlike a movie, we miss most of the action. Sure, we come upon it in anticipation, but most of the killings are (literally) veiled from our eyes. We can’t figure out who the heroes are because they keep dying in very anticlimactic ways, right before, or right after, our attention has been called. I’m so excited that a filmmaker (two even!) have resurrected the art of “not showing”–Hitchcock definitely had that one down, as did many others, though perhaps in part out of regard for the censors. Well the censors have mostly gone home, but the viewers remain, and No Country for Old Men is described as a “violent” film or one that is “action packed,” but these lines come from censors who were once viewers. The truth is that the film simply shows us what it’s like to be an old man who is too slow, too peaceful, and too intelligent, for the world of terror.

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