Katharine Sarah Moody - Radical Theology and Emerging Christianity: Deconstruction, Materialism and Religious Practices (Intensities: Contemporary Continental Philosophy of Religion)

Radical Theology and

emeRging chRisTianiTy

inTensiTies: conTempoRaRy conTinenTal philosophy of Religion

series editors:

patrice haynes and steven shakespeare,

both at liverpool hope University, UK

This series sits at the forefront of contemporary developments in continental philosophy of religion, engaging particularly with radical reinterpretations and applications of the continental canon from Kant to derrida and beyond but also with significant departures from that tradition. a key area of focus is the emergence of new realist and materialist schools of thought whose potential contribution to philosophy of religion is at an early stage. Rooted in a vibrant tradition of thinking about religion, whilst positioning itself at the cutting edge of emerging agendas, this series has a clear focus on continental and post-continental philosophy of religion and complements ashgates British society for philosophy of Religion series with its more analytic approach.

other titles in the series:

A Philosophy of Christian Materialism

Entangled Fidelities and the Public Good

christopher Baker, Thomas a. James, John Reader

Praying to a French God

The Theology of Jean-Yves Lacoste

Kenneth Jason Wardley

Heidegger on Death

A Critical Theological Essay

george pattison

Re-visioning Gender in Philosophy of Religion

Reason, Love and Epistemic Locatedness

pamela sue anderson

Radical Theology and

emerging christianity

deconstruction, materialism and Religious practices KaThaRine saRah moody

Katharine sarah moody 2015

all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Katharine sarah moody has asserted her right under the copyright, designs and patents act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: moody, Katharine sarah.

Radical theology and emerging christianity : deconstruction, materialism and religious practices / by Katharine sarah moody.

pages cm. (intensities : contemporary continental philosophy of religion) includes bibliographical references and index.

isBn 978-1-4094-5591-2 (hardcover) isBn 978-1-4724-2774-8 (ebook)

isBn 978-1-4724-2775-5 (epub) 1. postmodernism Religious aspects christianity.

2. emerging church movement. i. Title.

BR115.p74m66 2015

230.046dc23

2015009324

isBn 9781409455912 (hbk)

isBn 9781472427748 (ebk pdf)

isBn 9781472427755 (ebk epUB)

printed in the United Kingdom by henry ling limited, at the dorset press, dorchester, dT1 1hd

To Sim,

for keeping faith with me

This page has been left blank intentionally

Contents

Acknowledgements

ix

Abbreviations

xi i

Introduction

1

Part I an EmErgIng a/thEIstIC ImagInary

religion and the Critique of Ideology

a Theology of the god Who Dies

The Excess of Events over names

The matter of Life

a Theology of the (hyper-)real

6 a/Theism

Part II an EmErgIng Ir/rELIgIous PraCtICE

religion with/out religion

a Faith/less Fighting Collective

9 Faithful

Betrayal

10 transformance

art

11 suspended

space

The Church Emerging after god

viii

Radical Theology and Emerging Christianity

Conclusion

219

Bibliography

239

Index

261

Acknowledgements

This book has taken shape over a long period of time. In part this is because, as a writing project on the relationship between radical theology and emerging Christianity, it arose from a much broader research project on the emerging church and it took time for me to see how that study would be best suited to publication as two books and how each book would require further work to do justice to what I now found I wanted to do with that original research. I would therefore like to acknowledge a number of people who provided me with opportunities to undertake the work that was needed to bring the manuscript for Radical Theology and Emerging Christianity to completion.

I began studying emerging Christianity ten years ago in 2005. I had been researching deconstruction, Christianity and queer theory, interviewing LGBTQ

Christians and conducting participant observations in congregations affiliated with the United Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. At an MCC

worship retreat, Chris Dowd, the pastor of Journey, MCC Birmingham, lead a workshop on alternative worship and the emerging church, framing both in terms of a deconstruction of modernist Christianities, and I should like to thank Chris for this initiation into the emerging church conversation and the attendant provocation to think about it in relation to my research on deconstruction and religion. But I am also thankful for the welcome that I received from Journey on moving to Birmingham several years later, when I attended their Sunday morning worship services and evening discussion groups during 2010 and 2011.

Im especially grateful that I had the opportunity to run an Atheism for Lent group at Journey, inspired by the Lenten practice of giving up God by seriously engaging with atheist critics of religion that Peter Rol ins (one of the emerging church figures whose work is examined in detail in this book) had begun with Ikon, the collective he founded in Belfast. Designing the curriculum for this Lent course gave me the opportunity to further study figures like Feuerbach, Freud, Marx and Nietzsche, which in turn informed my understanding of the roots of radical theology in nineteenth-century critiques of religion (although we also looked in detail at contemporary atheists like Ricky Gervais and Derren Brown). Through this course, I was also able to become part of a creative group actively exploring how doubt, disbelief and atheism might inspire communal ritual practices, and Im glad to have met both Dave Waring and Deb Curnock in this regard; they have great spiritual honesty and artistic vision.

x

Radical Theology and Emerging Christianity

I would like to thank several people for inviting me to share aspects of my work as it has developed over the years with a number of other Christian groups, organisations and networks. Kester Brewin (the other emerging church figure who is profiled in this book) invited me to give talks at Greenbelt Christian arts and justice festival in 2012, and again in 2013 as part of a track of talks on radical theology that also featured Peter Rol ins, John D. Caputo and Marika Rose. Also in 2013, John Skinner, co-founder of the Northumbria Community, asked me to be part of a learning day on new perspectives and new praxis for new monasticism. He has also very kindly funded my travel to a number of other events. In 2014, Paul Onslow invited me to speak at Godly Mayhem, a joint conference of Progressive Christian Network Britain and the Student Christian Movement. But I must thank Peter Rol ins in particular for asking me to be part of his annual Belfast events since he and Adam Turkington began curating them in 2013. During the first of these, I had been asked to give a talk positioning Petes work within contemporary theological and political philosophy, and I struggled to find my place as an academic at an event that was more retreat than conference. However, I met some great people who I now think of as great friends, even though we have only met in person on a few occasions. This group has grown to include new people each year, but I am especially glad to know Steve and Anne Priest, John Hardt and Deb Sims Hardt, Karen Francis, Melanie Quinton Burton, and Chris Terry Nelson, as well as my wonderful hosts Jonny and Susan McEwen and, of course, Pete. I would also like to thank Cary Gibson, Chris Fry, Jon Hatch, Kellie Turtle, Pdraig Tuama, Shirley McMillan and Stephen Caswell, for providing me with copies of some of the pieces that they have performed at Ikon gatherings over the years.