Category
Author: Chris Watkin
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Summary and reviews of the book “Great Thinkers: Jacques Derrida”
Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Press, 2017 Summary One of the most important thinkers of our time, Jacques Derrida continues to have a profound influence on postmodern thought and society. Christopher Watkin explains Derrida’s complex philosophy with clarity and precision, showing not only what Derrida says about metaphysics, ethics, politics, and theology but also what
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Summary and reviews of the book “Great thinkers: Michel Foucault”
Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Press, 2018 Publisher’s Summary Hugely influential, Michel Foucault’s work has not only impacted a diverse range of disciplines—from history and sociology to fine arts, feminism, and gay and lesbian studies—but has also profoundly shaped Western culture at a street level. Yet until now there has been no overarching systematic approach to
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Summary and reviews of Thinking Through Creation: Genesis 1 and 2 as Tools of Cultural Critique
Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Press, 2017. Summary Reading Genesis 1 and 2, we are tempted to see only problems to solve. Yet these two chapters burst with glorious truths about God, our world, and ourselves. In fact, their foundational doctrines are among the richest sources of insight as we pursue robust, sensitive, and constructive engagement
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Let’s read Pascal’s Pensées – keep in the loop
Over the coming months I will be reading and blogging through Pascal’s Pensées. It is a truly remarkable book of Christian apologetics, a real classic written by a brilliant mathematician and literary author. I first studied Pascal as part of my undergraduate degree, and then returned to him later as a fount of wisdom on
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Thinking Through Sin: Genesis 3, Sartre, and the power of the gaze
When Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil their relationship undergoes a striking change. They begin accusing each other of wrongdoing (3:12-13), becoming ashamed (3:7,10) and being defensive (3:12-13). Their relationship becomes a zero sum game of power and domination (3:16b) in which each is
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Explaining Derrida with Diagrams 1: Différance
I’ve written a book on Derrida which is intended to be accessible to non-philosophers, and one of the challenges is to explain Derrida’s thought both faithfully and clearly. I have decided to use diagrams as one way of helping readers to grasp what Derrida is saying and, equally importantly, what he isn’t saying. I am
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Thinking Through Sin: Original sin and critical theory
This is an excerpt from the as-yet unpublished book Thinking Through Sin and Judgment, in the ‘Thinking Through the Bible’ series For all the contemporary resistance to the idea of sin, it finds some striking echoes in modern critical and cultural theory, echoes of the way in which sin effects how that we think about
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Who am I? Jesus’s question to find your true identity may surprise you
One of the great questions of our age is “Who am I?” Its answer is the key to unlock every door. Films like the original Star Wars trilogy, the Jason Bourne franchise and Captain Marvel derive much of their narrative impetus and emotional pull from the quest for the self: what is my true identity?
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The Gospel Coalition Course | Derrida, Foucault, and the Bible
Derrida, Foucault, and the Bible Understand What Prominent Postmodern Philosophers Derrida and Foucault Were Saying, and Put Their Views in Conversation with the Bible About the Course This course will help you see what Derrida and Foucault are really saying, and show you how you can bring their thought into conversation with the Bible. You
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From Plato to Postmodernism book: Introduction
Here is the Introduction from my 2011 book From Plato to Postmodernism: The Story of Western Culture Through Philosophy, Literature and Art. The Introduction is entitled “To the man with a hammer …” human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but life obliges them
