2nd Call for Papers
for a proposed volume:
Biblical Philosophy?
Exploratory Essays
Editors, Mark Cauchi and Avron Kulak
We invite essay submissions for a proposed volume entitled Biblical Philosophy? Exploratory Essays to be reviewed by Continuum Books.
The purpose of the volume is to explore the relationship between the Bible and philosophy. According to the traditional story of the development of Western thought, what we call philosophy originated in ancient Greece, where it existed for approximately five hundred years without any relationship to the Bible. What, however, are we to make of the fact that, for approximately two thousand years, from Philo and Justin the Martyr to Agamben and Taylor, the Bible has been an integral part of the history of Western philosophy – a much longer period of time than the period in which it was not? Has the traditional account of the origins of philosophy adequately addressed the implications of this history when it insists that philosophy is primarily Greek – that philosophy originates in, or is concerned primarily with, the ancient Greek conception of logos, rather than with modes of thought derived from other traditions (e.g. biblical faith)? Given, in other words, that the history of Western culture has, in the last two thousand years, never lost contact with the Bible in the way that it did lose contact with the ancient Greeks, is it not possible that the Bible and its modes of thinking have had a greater impact on philosophy than is often assumed? What would uncovering the neglected relationship between the Bible and philosophy reveal about the concept, practice, and history of philosophy, as well as about particular concepts, practices, and movements within the history of philosophy?
The proposed volume seeks to explore in the broadest manner possible, from both continental and analytic traditions, questions pertaining to the neglected relationship between the Bible and philosophy. To give shape to this interrogation, the volume will be divided into three main parts: (1) conceptual issues raised by the relationship between the Bible and philosophy, e.g. what is faith/reason/philosophy; (2) historical issues raised by the relationship between the Bible and philosophy, e.g. how to (re)tell the history of philosophy, the Bible’s influence on philosophy, etc.; and (3) philosophical readings of biblical texts, concepts, values, and practices.
Under this rubric, the following questions might be considered:
- Is the Bible in itself antithetical or unamenable to reason and philosophy?
- Is it true that the Bible is merely concerned with “faith,” while the ancient Greeks were concerned with “reason”?
- What do we mean by “reason” and what do we mean by “faith”?
- What is the relationship between ancient Greek and biblical thought – between the values that are central to each tradition and those that comprise our modern and, perhaps, postmodern conceptions of reason and faith?
- How have biblical concepts and values (creation, sin, covenant, liberation, revelation, prophecy, miracle, love…) contributed to the development of modern and postmodern thought?
- What can we learn by looking systematically at the substantive references made to the Bible by modern philosophers (Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida, Ricoeur, Marion, Badiou, Agamben, Taylor, MacIntyre…)? Would these references suggest that the Bible plays a role not only in the history of philosophy but also in the history of reason itself?
- Would it be legitimate to speak about a “biblical philosophy” in distinction, say, to theology? If so, what would the former be?
Article Requirements:
- Articles should be no more than 8000 words in length (excluding notes)
- Articles should follow the Chicago Manual of Style (style 1), using endnotes.
Schedule:
- Submit proposals of one single-spaced page by July 1, 2012
- Authors will be notified by September 1, 2012
- Essays are due Jan 31, 2013
- Authors will be notified by Mar 31, 2013
Correspondence
- Essays should be submitted to mcauchi@yorku.ca and akulak@yorku.ca
- If you have any questions, please contact Mark Cauchi (mcauchi@yorku.ca)