Forthcoming 2014

Post-Secular Theology and the Church: A New Kind of Christian is A New Kind of Atheist (Cascade, Wipf and Stock, forthcoming 2014), monograph based on my doctoral research (working title). This book details how both Radical Orthodoxy and deconstruction appear to be theologically apt for emerging Christianity, yet argues that the emergence of a new kind of Christian, who takes seriously the implications of postmodern thought, also signals the emergence of a new kind of atheist – the ‘a/theist’, who fully comprehends the death of God and the loss of a guarantor of meaning and truth.

Radical Theology and Emerging Christianity: Deconstruction, Materialism and Religious Practice (Ashgate, forthcoming 2014), monograph based on my doctoral and post-doctoral research (working title). Here, I present the ways in which several ‘philosophers of the event’ (including Alain Badiou, John D. Caputo, Jacques Derrida, and Slavoj Žižek) influence an emerging ‘a/theistic’ discourse and ‘ir/religious’ practice. I mount the principal argument that a Caputian ‘a/theism’ is the proper framework for Žižek’s (atheistic yet Pauline) fighting collective and contribute to debates about the recent philosophical ‘turn to Paul’ by arguing for an ethics of truth as an excessive responsibility of hospitality and justice.

Giving up God: A Guide to A/Theism (co-authored with Simeon Wallis). The “New Atheists” attack Christianity on the grounds that it is irrational, immoral, inconsistent, psychologically abusive, frequently violence, and fundamentally untrue. But the majority of Christian ripostes to the “New Atheism” share their assumed theory that truth is the correct representation of reality. But what if the event that gives rise to the Christian religion is not a truth of this kind, but one that ultimately cuts across the boundaries of theism and atheism? What if religion is properly about a form of faith that is neither theistic nor atheistic but “a/theistic”? This book introduces readers to criticisms of religion from the “New Atheists”, from great modern atheists like Freud, Marx and Nietzsche, and from the “difficult atheism” emerging from contemporary continental philosophy of religion and radical theology. It builds to argue for the religious and political potential of the concept and practice of “a/theism”. Offering individuals and book groups the opportunity to reflect on the themes of God, faith and doubt and structured around 40 accessible chapters, Giving up God: A Guide to A/Theism can also be read as part of the a/theistic practice of Atheism for Lent.

Forthcoming 2013

“Between Deconstruction and Speculation: John D. Caputo and A/Theological Materialism.” In B. Keith Putt, Clayton Crockett and Jeffrey Robbins, eds. The Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion (forthcoming 2013) (invited).

“The Faith of the Faith/less? Emerging Experiments in A/Theistic Association”, Political Theology (forthcoming 2013) (invited).

Review of Roger Haydon Mitchell, Church, Gospel and Empire: How the Politics of Sovereignty Impregnated the West (Wipf & Stock, 2011) Crucible (forthcoming 2013) (invited).

Review of Josh Packard, The Emerging Church: Religion at the Margins (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012) Journal of Contemporary Religion (forthcoming 2013) (invited).

2013

“Giving Up God for Lent” Third Way Magazine (Jan/Feb 2013) (invited).

2012

Intensities: Philosophy, Religion and the Affirmation of Life (Ashgate, 2012) co-edited with Steven Shakespeare, and incl. chapters from John D. Caputo, Pamela Sue Anderson, Philip Goodchild, and Don Cupitt.

“Retrospective Speculative Philosophy: Looking for Traces of Zizek’s Communist Collective in Emerging Christian Praxis.” Political Theology 13/2 (Apr 2012) pp.183-199 (invited).

Review of Chris K. Huebner and Tripp York, eds. The Gift of Difference: Radical Orthodoxy, Radical Reformation (Manitoba: CMU Press, 2010) Political Theology 13/1 (Jan 2012) pp.113-115 (invited).

2010

“‘I Hate Your Church; What I Want is My Kingdom’: Emerging Spiritualities in the UK Emerging Church Milieu.” The Expository Times, 121/10 (Jul 2010), pp.495-503 (invited).

“Making an Emergent Future Present.” Review of Bruce Sanguin, The Emergent Church: A Model for Change and a Map for Renewal (CopperHouse, 2008) The Expository Times 122/1 (Oct 2010), p.48 (invited).

2009

“Researching Theo(b)logy: Emerging Christian Communities and the Internet.” In Chris Deacy and Elisabeth Arweck, eds. Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age (Ashgate, 2009), pp.237-251.

2008

“The Desire for Interactivity and the Emerging Texts of the Blogosphere.” In Dawn Llewellyn and Deborah F. Sawyer, eds. Reading Spiritualities: Constructing and Representing the Sacred (Ashgate, 2008), pp.99-113 (invited).

2007

“Theo(b)logy: The Technological Transformation of Theology.” In John La Grou and Len Hjalmarson, eds. Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution (Wikiklesia Press, 2007), pp.213-219.