Macron’s speech in Notre Dame on the occasion of its reopening was a transgression of the principles of French laïcité, confirming the worldwide tendencies towards the increasing culturalization of Christianity and the constant relegation of Islam to the realm of religion.
These systemic injustices have a root: the root of a colonial system designed to supplant Indigenous life. They have a genealogy, a history, a process: their ancestor is money and their descendants are death.
We must remember that stories are only alive as they are told and retold, embedding themselves in a society’s soil and growing as people inject energy through letting the story play out in the world.
The preliminary schedule for our 2025 conference is now available!
War and its terrible consequences are painful to look at, but the prophet Jeremiah calls his audience not to look away. Our attention is an essential part of our moral agency.
Liberal denialism is key in deflecting any responsibility or accountability, and it is this position of “not taking a position” that enables the impunity of perpetrators, enabling even more violence.
By subverting familial connections, Jesus is not undermining ties of affection but dismantling the social and economic security that comes with them, while simultaneously expanding the meaning of relationality.
Mapping normative rhythms and their interruptions, recovering voices and paths of antagonism, conjuring counter-plagues: these are the critical imperatives for the riotous times of the present.
Worship, with its “meaning-laden symbols, repeating rituals, sacred texts, shared song, prescribed prayers, re-enacted narratives,” has a way of moving the worshiper away from what is proscribed to what is prescribed; in effect, from the vices of corruption to the virtues that promote the common good.