Fall 2017
Hent de Vries
What characterizes genuine events, in history and politics, individual lives and loves? In what sense might miracles, more precisely, the theology and tradition of miracle belief and its modern critiques, offer the greatest resource for answering this somewhat philosophical question, even or especially in an age of global media?
This course seeks to determine the meaning and role of events in public or global religions under the expansion of new technological media. It does so from what, at first glance, seems a narrow and counter-intuitive proposal: to establish a dialogue among traditional theologies of the miracle, modern philosophies of the event, and contemporary media theories of the special effect. The challenge will be to analyze and compare these old and new archives in terms of their respective idioms and concepts, methods and arguments, metaphysics and politics, so as to develop a critical, heuristic and diagnostic interpretive tool for the larger questions at hand.
The course starts out from the hypothesis that in the current day and age—described as secular by some, as post-secular by others—more than ever before, we need to learn how to read the “signs of the times” (Matthew 16:3) and this with a deeply pragmatic, rather than eschatological, let alone apocalyptic, perspective in mind.
Attention will further be paid to a variety of concrete historical examples as well as to other conceptualizations of miracles and events that either substantiate or contradict these authors' respective claims.
Week 1- Introduction: Why and How Miracles Matter
Reading:
Walt Whitman, "Miracles," in Norton Critical Edition of Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass and Other Writings, ed. Michael Moon (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002), 327.
David L. Weddle, Miracles: Wonder and Meaning in World Religions (New York: New York University Press, 2010), "Preface" and "Preliminary Considerations," xi-xiv, 1-35.
Week 2- Classical, Biblical and Greco-Roman Theologies of the Miracle
Reading:
Wendy Cotter, Miracles in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook for the New Testament Miracles Stories (New York: Routledge, 1999), Introduction and Part I, 1-8 and 11-72.
Week 3- St. Augustine, City of God, Book XXI 6-8, XXII 8-10.
Hent de Vries, "Fast Forward, Or: The Theologico-Political Event in Quick Motion (Miracles, Media, and Multitudes in St. Augustine)," How the West Was Won: Essays on the Literary Imagination, the Canon, and the Christian Middle Ages for Burcht Pranger, ed. Willemien Otten, Arjo Vanderjagt, and Hent de Vries (Lieden and Boston: Brill, 2010), 255-280.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles, III, chapters 98-103.
Week 4- Modern Enlightenment Critiques of Miracle Belief (I)
Reading:
Anthony Flew, "Miracles," in Paul Edwards. The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (New York and London: Macmillan Publishing Co. & The Free Press, 1972), vol. 5, 346-353.
Lorraine Daston, "Marvelous Facts and Miraculous Evidence in Early Modern Europe," in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn, 1991), 93-124.
David Hume, "Of Miracles," Chapter X of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
Robert J. Fogelin, A Defense of Hume on Miracles (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003), selections.
Week 5- Modern Enlightenment Critiques of Miracle Belief (II)
Reading: Spinoza, “On Miracles,” in Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, ed. Jonathan Israel and Michael Silverthorne (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007). |
Week 6- Continuation
Reading: Michael A. Rosenthal, “Miracles, Wonder, and the State in Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise, In Yitzhak Y. Melamed and Michael A. Rosenthal, eds., Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise: A Critical Guide (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 231-249. Hent de Vries, “Spinoza, Levinas, and the Theologico-Political Meaning of Scripture,” Political Theologies: Public Religions in the Post-Secular World, ed. Hent de Vries and Lawrence E. Sullivan (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 232-248.
Week 7- Ludwig Wittgenstein on Miracles Reading: Wittgenstein's "Lecture on Ethics," Philosophical Review Vol. 74, No. 1 (Jan., 1965), 3-12, reprinted in Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951, ed., James C. Klagge and Alfred Normann (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1933), 36-44. For a critical edition and commentary, see Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lecture on Ethics: Introduction, Interpretation and Complete Text, ed. Edoardo Zamuner, E. Valentina Di Lascio, and David Levy, With Notes by Ilse Somavilla (Macerata: Verbarium Quodlibet, 2007). Michael Murray, "A Note on Wittgenstein and Heidegger," The Philosophical Review, Vol. 83, No.4 (1974), 501-503.
Week 8- Walter Benjamin and the Miracle of the Dancing Ball Reading: Walter Benjamin, "Rastelli erzählt," idem, Gesammelte Schriften, ed. Rolf Tiedemann and Herman Schweppenhäuser (Frankfurt a/M.: Suhrkamp, 1980), Vol. IV-2, 777-80; "Rastelli Narrates," trans. Carol Jacobs, The Dissimulating Harmoney: The Image of Interpretation in Nietzche, Rilke, Artaud, and Benjamin [Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1978], 117-19, and as "Rastelli's Story," trans. by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings in Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 3, 1935-1938, ed. by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings (Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002), 96-98.
Week 9- Continuation Reading: Eric L. Santer, "Miracles Happen: Benjamin, Rosenzweig, Freud, and the Matter of the Neighbor," in Kenneth Reinhard, Eric L. Santner, and Slavoj Zizek, The Neighbor: Three Inquiries into Political Theology (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005), 76-133.
Week 10- Philosophies of the Event (I): Alain Badiou on St. Paul and Blaise Pascal Reading: Alain Badiou, Being and Event, trans. Oliver Feltham (New York and London: Continuum, 2005), "Pascal." Idem, Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism, trans. Ray Brassier (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), selections.
Week 11- Philosophies of the Event (II): Phenomenology and Analytic Philosophy Reading: Jean-Luc Marion, Being Given: Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness, trans. Jeffrey L. Kosky (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002, 2012), selections.
Week 12- A New Way of Conceiving Miracles: Sari Nusseibeh, al-Ghazali, Avicenna, and the Politics of Secular Faith Reading: Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali, The Incoherence of the Philsophers, trans. and ed. Michael E. Marmura (Brigham Young University Press, 2002), Chapter XVII, "On Causality and Miracles." Sari Nusseibeh, "Philosophical Reflections on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Lecture I. of Hedgehogs, Foxes & Swans; Lecture 2. Of Folly, Faith & Miracles," in Suzan Young, ed., The Tanner Lectures On Human Values (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2011), 35-72. Hannah Arendt, "What is Freedom?," idem, Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought (New York and London: Penguin Press, 2006), 142-169.
Week 13- Of Miracles, Media and Special Effects Reading: Jacques Derrida, "Faith and Knowledge: The Two Sources of 'Religion' at the Limits of Reason Alone," trans. Samuel Weber, in Derrida and Vattimo, eds., Religion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), 1-78. Jacques Derrida, "Above No Journalists!," trans. Samuel Webe, in Hent de Vries and Samuel Weber, eds., Religion and Media (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 56-93. Henri Bergson, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, trans. R. Ashlet Audra and Cloudesley Brereton, with the assistance of W. Horsfall Carter (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986), Chapter 4, "Final Remarks: Mechanics and Mysticism," 266-317. Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2001), Chapter 4, "The Illusions," 177-211.
Readings Hannah Arendt, Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought (New York and London: Penguin Press, 2006), Selections. Alain Badiou, Being and Event, trans. Oliver Feltham (New York and London: Continuum, 2005), Selections. Alain Badiou, Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism, trans. Ray Brassier (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003). Isaiah Berlin, “Austin and the Early Beginnings of Oxford Philosophy,” in Isaiah Berlin e.a., eds., Essays on J.L. Austin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), 1-16. Wendy Cotter, Miracles in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook for the New Testament Miracles Stories (New York: Routledge, 1999). Henri Bergson, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, trans. R. Ashley Audra and Cloudesley Brereton, with the assistance of W. Horsfall Carter (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986), Selections. Robert J. Fogelin, A Defense of Hume on Miracles (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003). Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2001). Jean-Luc Marion, Being Given: Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness, trans. Jeffrey L. Kosky (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), Selections. Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, ed. Jonathan Israel and Michael Silverthorne (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007), Selections. Hent de Vries and Samuel Weber, eds., Religion and Media (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001). Hent de Vries and Lawrence E. Sullivan, eds., Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), Selections. Hent de Vries, ed., Religion Beyond a Concept (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008). David L. Weddle, Miracles: Wonder and Meaning in World Religions (New York and London: New York University Press, 2010). Some Further Recommended Readings: Paolo Apolito, The Internet and the Madonna: Religious Visionary Experience on the Web (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005). Manuel Castells, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Volume I: The Rise of the Network Society (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996); Volume II: The Power of Identity (1997); Volume III: End of the Millenium (1998). Stanley Cavell, “The Ordinary as the Uneventful,” in idem, Themes out of School: Effects and Causes (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 184-194. Donald Davidson, “The Individuation of Events,” in idem Essays on Actions and Events (Oxford : Clarendon, 2001), 163-180 Idem, “Events as Particulars,” in idem Essays on Actions and Events, 181-188. Idem, “The Emergence of Thought,” in: idem, Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001), 123-134. Jacques Derrida, “Autoimmunity: Real and Symbolic Suicides—A Dialogue with Jacques Derrida,” in Giovanna Borradori, ed., Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003), 85-136; “Auto-immunités, suicides reels et symboliques: Un dialogue avec Jacques Derrida,” in Jacques Derrida and Jürgen Habermas, Le “concept” du 11 septembre: Dialogues à New York (octobre-décembre 2001) avec Giovanna Borradori (Paris: Galilée, 2003), 133-196. Alexander C. T. Geppert and Till Kössler, eds., Wunder: Poetik und Politik des Staunens im 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, 2011). David Johnson, Hume, Holism, and Miracles (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999). Norman Klein, The Vatican to Vegas: A History of Special Effects (New York and London: The New Press, 2004). John Locke, “A Discourse of Miracles,” in idem, Writings on Religion, ed. Victor Nuovo (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). Michael Naas, Miracle and Machine: Jacques Derrida and the Two Sources of Religion, Science, and the Media (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012). Sari Nusseibeh, “Philosophical Reflections on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Lecture I. Of Hedgehogs, Foxes & Swans; Lecture 2. Of Folly, Faith & Miracles,” in Suzan Young, ed., The Tanner Lectures On Human Values (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2011), 35-72. Michele Pierson, Special Effects: Still in Search of Wonder (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002). Edgar Allan Poe, “Maelzel's Chess-Player,” Southern Literary Messenger (1834-1845), vol. II, 42 (1 Apr. 1836), pp. 318-326. Eric L. Santner, “Miracles Happen: Benjamin, Rosenzweig, Freud, and the Matter of the Neighbor,” in Kenneth Reinhard, Eric L. Santner, and Slavoj Zizek, The Neighbor: Three Inquiries into Political Theology (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005), 76-133. Hent de Vries, “Introduction: Before, Around, and Beyond the Theologico-Political” Political Theologies: Public Religions in the Post-Secular World, ed. Hent de Vries and Lawrence E. Sullivan (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 1-88. Hent de Vries, “Introduction: Why Still ‘Religion’?” Religion – Beyond A Concept (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008), 1-98.
|