Objections to Christian Belief (CT3830Y)

Content

Christian beliefs and practices have been subjected to a variety of critiques of varying intensity over the centuries, especially in the modern period. Christian responses to these objections have themselves taken different forms: from apologetics, through to self-critical theological reflection. This unit critically evaluates a range of prominent objections by bringing Critical Theorists into interrogative conversation with theologians with a view to identifying certain overlapping concerns with the theological that may be conducive to ascertaining how to be appropriately theologically honest. After all, Sigmund Freud argued, people are not good at identifying the delusions they are shaped by. Topics may include: believing and acting in a pluralistic environment; deliberating on matters of the theological and violence where there is no agreement on a common good; the integrity of theological education; and the question of what constitutes human dignity under posthuman conditions.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

Either an UG level 1 AP or CT unit

Pedagogy

Mixed mode – Face-to-face, online, blended learning, flipped classrooms

Indicative Bibliography

• Adorno, Theodor W. and Horkheimer, Max. The Dialectic of Enlightenment. Translated by John Cumming. London and New York: Verso, 1979.
• Agamben, Giorgio. Creation and Anarchy: The Work of Art and the Religion of Capitalism. Translated by Adam Kotsko. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019.
• Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York and London: Penguin, 2006.
  
• Brown, Wendy. Walled States, Waning Sovereignty. New York: Zone Books, 2014.
• Cavanaugh, William T. The Uses of Idolatry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.
• Gauchet, Marcel. The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion. Translation by Oscar Burge. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.
• Jantzen, Grace M. Foundations of Violence: Death and the Displacement of Beauty. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
  
• Lash, Nicholas. The Beginning and the End of Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• McDowell, John C. Theology and the Globalized Present: Feasting in the Presence of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019.
• Žižek, Slavoj. On Belief. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.

Assessment