What do you think?
Rate this book
Displacing Christian Origins: Philosophy, Secularity, and the New Testament
Recent critical theory is curiously preoccupied with the metaphors and ideas of early Christianity, especially the religion of Paul. The haunting of secular thought by the very religion it seeks to overcome may seem surprising at first, but Ward Blanton argues that this recent return by theorists to the resources of early Christianity has precedent in modern and ostensibly secularizing philosophy, from Kant to Heidegger.
Displacing Christian Origins traces the current critical engagement of Agamben, Derrida, and Žižek, among others, back into nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century philosophers of early Christianity. By comparing these crucial moment s in the modern history of philosophy with exemplars of modern biblical scholarship—David Friedrich Strauss, Adolf Deissmann, and Albert Schweitzer—Blanton offers a new way for critical theory to construe the relationship between the modern past and the biblical traditions to which we seem to be drawn once again.
An innovative contribution to the intellectual history of biblical exegesis, Displacing Christian Origins will promote informed and fruitful debate between religion and philosophy.
Displacing Christian Origins traces the current critical engagement of Agamben, Derrida, and Žižek, among others, back into nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century philosophers of early Christianity. By comparing these crucial moment s in the modern history of philosophy with exemplars of modern biblical scholarship—David Friedrich Strauss, Adolf Deissmann, and Albert Schweitzer—Blanton offers a new way for critical theory to construe the relationship between the modern past and the biblical traditions to which we seem to be drawn once again.
An innovative contribution to the intellectual history of biblical exegesis, Displacing Christian Origins will promote informed and fruitful debate between religion and philosophy.
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2007
22 people want to read
About the author
Ward Blanton
19 books2 followersWard Blanton is reader in biblical cultures and European thought at the University of Kent in Canterbury.
He went to the University of Kent in 2013, after spending most of my early career at the University of Glasgow. He received his PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University in 2004, working with biblical scholars, historians of ideas, and continental philosophers to try to map new ways of understanding the shared genealogies and competitive struggles of biblical studies and philosophy within European academic contexts.
Later work took up the ancient/modern issue of ‘Jerusalem and Athens’ (often by way of Berlin, Paris and Rome) through a focus on Paul the apostle as a figure of continental philosophy and psychoanalytic cultural theory.
He went to the University of Kent in 2013, after spending most of my early career at the University of Glasgow. He received his PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University in 2004, working with biblical scholars, historians of ideas, and continental philosophers to try to map new ways of understanding the shared genealogies and competitive struggles of biblical studies and philosophy within European academic contexts.
Later work took up the ancient/modern issue of ‘Jerusalem and Athens’ (often by way of Berlin, Paris and Rome) through a focus on Paul the apostle as a figure of continental philosophy and psychoanalytic cultural theory.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.