Christopher Watkin

A bold vision for Christians who want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and culturally sensitive. In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture. Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so, they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to scrutinize and change them. Biblical Critical Theory exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape late-modern society, examining them through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation, and asking urgent questions like: How does the Bible's storyline help us understand our society, our culture, and ourselves? How do specific doctrines help us engage thoughtfully in the philosophical, political, and social questions of our day? How can we analyze and critique culture and its alternative critical theories through Scripture? Informed by the biblical-theological structure of Saint Augustine's magisterial work The City of God (and with extensive diagrams and practical tools), Biblical Critical Theory shows how the patterns of the Bible's storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening in today's debates on everything from science, the arts, and politics to dignity, multiculturalism, and equality. You'll learn the moves to make and the tools to use in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artifacts and events in a way that is both biblically faithful and culturally relevant. It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to the culture or cultures in which we live. We must also explain the culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the Bible, revealing how the whole of the Bible sheds light on the whole of life. If Christians want to speak with a fresh, engaging, and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.

How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture

Biblical Critical Theory

Timothy Keller

Introduces the interdisciplinary importance of Michel Serres (1930-2019) across the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences Author of some 70 books and an 'immortal' member of the Acad�mie fran�aise, Michel Serres has produced an inimitable cross-disciplinary body of work. His scholarship contributes to current debates in post-humanism, object-oriented ontology, ecological thought and the environmental humanities. Chris Watkin provides the first introduction to the full breadth of Serres' work. Each chapter considers Serres' importance for one key contemporary debate, critically situating his well-known passages and books in their broader conceptual and intellectual context. You will discover that Serres' famous account of the quasi-object and his 'natural contract' are just the beginning of a sustained series of explorations encompassing philosophy, literary criticism, the sciences, technology, religion, and art -- all as participants in the same fundamental structures of communication.

Figures of Thought

Michel Serres

Phenomenology or Deconstruction? challenges traditional understandings of the relationship between phenomenology and deconstruction through new readings of the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Paul Ricur and Jean-Luc Nancy. A constant dialogue with Jacques Derrida's engagement with phenomenological themes provides the impetus to establishing a new understanding of 'being' and 'presence' that exposes significant blindspots inherent in traditional readings of both phenomenology and deconstruction. In reproducing neither a stock phenomenological reaction to deconstruction nor the routine deconstructive reading of phenomenology, Christopher Watkin provides a fresh assessment of the possibilities for the future of phenomenology, along with a new reading of the deconstructive legacy. Through detailed studies of the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Ricur and Nancy, he shows how a phenomenological tradition much wider and richer than Husserlian or Heideggerean thought alone can take account of Derrida's critique of ontology and yet still hold a commitment to the ontological. This new reading of being and presence fundamentally re-draws our understanding of the relation of deconstruction and phenomenology, and provides the first sustained discussion of the possibilities and problems for any future 'deconstructive phenomenology'.

The Question of Ontology in Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Paul Ricoeur and Jean-Luc Nancy

Phenomenology or Deconstruction?

Reading Genesis 1 And 2, We Are Tempted to see only problems to solve. Yet these two chapters burst with glorious truths about God, our world, and ourselves. In fact their foundational doctrines are among the richest sources of Insight as we pursue robust, sensitive, and constructive engagement with others about contemporary culture and ideas. With deftness and clarity Christopher Watkin reclaims the Trinity and creation from their cultural despisers and shows how they speak into, question, and reorient some of today's most important debates Book jacket.

Genesis 1 and 2 as Tools of Cultural Critique

Thinking Through Creation

A Critical Introduction

MICHEL SERRES

Alain Badiou, Quentin Meillassoux, Catherine Malabou, Michel Serres and Bruno Latour: this comparative, critical analysis shows the promises and perils of new French philosophy's reformulation of the idea of the human.

New Figures of the Human in Badiou, Meillassoux, Malabou, Serres and Latour

French Philosophy Today

Hugely influential, Michel Foucault's work has not only impacted a diverse range of disciplines-from history and sociology to fine arts, feminism, and gay and lesbian studies-but has also profoundly shaped Western culture at a street level. Yet until now there has been no overarching systematic approach to his work from a Reformed perspective-let alone one that is as fair and accessible as Watkin's. After walking us through key elements of Foucault's thought, Watkin both critiques and answers Foucault through the Bible's teaching on history, power, and identity. His insights are necessary reading for anyone who wants to engage thoughtfully with the ideas of our culture. Book jacket.

Michael Foucault

Reassesses the term 'atheism' in the context of contemporary French philosophy. Drawing primarily on the work of Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux, Watkin explores post-theological reassessments of atheism through the ideas of the death of God and nihilism in contemporary French philosophy, and probes the limits of any 'atheistic politics'. He argues that rigorous atheism is elusive, and that Continental thought, even in its most stridently atheistic guises, has yet fully come to terms with the death of God.

Post-Theological Thinking in Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux

Difficult Atheism: Post-Theological Thinking in Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux

Drawing primarily on the work of Alain Badiou and Jean-Luc Nancy, plus Quentin Meillassoux and Slavoj Zizek, Watkin explores the theme of atheism through the ideas of the death of God and nihilism in contemporary French philosophy.

Difficult Atheism

One of the most important thinkers of our time, Jacques Derrida continues to have a profound influence on postmodern thought and society. Christopher Watkin explains Derrida's complex philosophy with clarity and precision, showing not only what Derrida says about metaphysics, ethics, politics, and theology but also what assumptions and commitments underlie his positions. He then brings Derrida into conversation with Reformed theology through the lens of John 1:118, examining both similarities and differences between Derrida and the Bible. Learn why Derrida says what he says and how Christians can receive and respond to his writing in a balanced, biblical way that is truly beneficial to cultural engagement.

Christopher Watkin

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