“Liberating the New Materialism,” review of Crockett & Robbins new book

Liberating the New Materialism by Mark Lewis Taylor A Review Essay of Clayton Crockett and Jeffrey Robbins, Religion, Earth & Politics: The New Materialism Forthcoming, in The Journal of Political Theology. Used by permission of the journal. This essay will be slightly edited for publication, scheduled as a journal release in 2014. Presented originally at […]

Assata Shakur – Challenge to New Jersey Politics

On May 2, just as I was traveling to the conference at Vanderbilt University, “Re-Thinking Prisons,” word came that the FBI, under President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, had placed Assata Shakur on its “Most Wanted Terrorists” list, the first woman ever to be designated as such. New Jersey State Police have driven […]

Enrique Dussel’s _Ethics of Liberation_ Now in English

Last week I was delighted to find in my mailbox my long-awaited and pre-ordered copy of Enrique Dussel’s Ethics of Liberation in the Age of Globalization and Exclusion (Duke University Press, 2013).  I’ve read and cherished my Spanish language version, purchased in 1999 from the Libreria Gandhi Polanco in Mexico City. Re-reading it now in […]

PHILOSOPHICAL NOTE: On “Faith” in Jean-Luc Nancy

The essay below has been prepared for a Dictionary, still in progress, about the philosophical terminology of Jean-Luc Nancy. (At right, Jean-Luc Nancy shown lecturing at the European Graduate School, photo taken by Mariluz Restrepo.) The originating editor of the Dictionary, B. C. Hutchens, summarizes Nancy’s importance: “Nancy is Professor of Philosophy at the University […]

Why Freedom for Abu-Jamal Makes Even More Sense Now

Originally this column appeared as an Op-Ed on the front page of Section D of The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 11, 2011. The original version, only slightly different than this updated version, is also available at Philly.com. ************ “Free Mumia” is more than a chant heard at rallies in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal. There’s a renewed […]

CHRISTIANS AND ARAB SPRING

Amid the protests in Egypt, a former student e-mailed me, writing that he and other Egyptian Christians in the streets were protesting alongside Muslim and other demonstrators. It led me to ask where U.S. Christians stand amid the inspiring drive for new freedoms waged by Arab peoples — in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan and maybe elsewhere to […]

TOWARD COUNTER-IMPERIAL FAITH

Christians in Egypt joined with Muslims during the February 2011 protests that drove U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak from power. Will U.S. Christians now find the courage to follow their lead and stand with the pro-democracy movements in Egypt, Libya, and beyond? I am doubtful; nevertheless, I dare to hope for the emergence of a U.S. Christian […]

Youth of Color: Watched and Shot (in San Francisco BayView)

(left to right, other youth of color dead from police violence: Michael Cho, Anthony Biaz, Ramarley Graham, and then image of Trayvon Martin.) Trayvon Martin and Mumia Abu-Jamal. One is dead. One languished on death row for 30 years. They are separated in age by a generation, separated by different locations and different life-histories, but […]

PHILOSOPHICAL NOTE: On Jean-Luc Nancy’s “Transimmanence”

The essay below has been prepared for a Dictionary, still in progress, about the philosophical terminology of Jean-Luc Nancy. The originating editor of the Dictionary, B. C. Hutchens, summarizes Nancy’s importance:  “Nancy is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Strasbourg, co-founder of the former ‘Centre for Philosophic Research on the Political’ and author of […]