Ontologies of Violence

Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement

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Author:
Maxwell Kennel
Ontologies of Violence provides a new paradigm for understanding the concept of violence through comparative interpretations of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, philosophical theologians in the Mennonite pacifist tradition, and Grace M. Jantzen’s feminist philosophy of religion. By drawing out and challenging the remarkably similar priorities shared by its three sources, and by challenging the assumption that differences necessarily lead to displacement, Ontologies of Violence provides a critical theory of violence by treating it as a diagnostic concept that implies the violation of value-laden boundaries.
Copyright Year:
2023
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978-90-04-54644-8
Publication:
24 Jul 2023
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26 Jul 2023
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Maxwell Kennel, Ph.D. (2021), McMaster University, is a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Social Accountability at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University. He is the author of Postsecular History: Political Theology and the Politics of Time (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
In Ontologies of Violence Maxwell Kennel renews conversations about the nature of violence by charting a course through Derrida and Mennonite political theology toward Grace Jantzen's celebration of life and beauty. In doing so, Kennel offers a positive vision - or story - of peace that refuses to subordinate difference to a predetermined harmony. The importance of this approach becomes especially clear in the book's conclusion, where Kennel brilliantly engages with intersectional theories of violence and the question of public health. – Jamie Pitts, Associate Professor Anabaptist Studies, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

In this refreshingly original book, Maxwell Kennel carefully guides the reader through complex texts, elucidates thorny philosophical and theological problems, and demonstrates the vitality of Mennonite thinking. Tackling the imposing question of violence’s meaning with sophistication and care, Kennel successfully moves between developing his own voice as a constructive interdisciplinary thinker and charting often-overlooked connections between Continental philosophy and Mennonite theology. It is such a joy to read a book in which each chapter surprises you with unexpected insights. – Vincent Lloyd, Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova University

Kennel’s Ontologies of Violence does not offer a definition that can become the cornerstone of a political vision. Instead, it undoes easy sloganeering and even challenges the headiest of theorizing in order to bring to the fore what is left unsaid when the term ‘violence’ is said. – Guy Lancaster, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books (November 2023)

Kennel’s work provides indispensable insights into the landscape of political theology, philosophy, and social theory. …While Kennel shares Radical Orthodoxy’s critique of the privatization of religion and the myth of purely secular spaces, he does so with a humble dispossession, care, and nuance absent from scholars such as Milbank… Overall, Kennel provides a strong case for an intersectional and nonviolent approach to knowing, thinking, and being in the world. – Andrew Banacos in Reading Religion

Acknowledgments

Introduction: What Is Violence?
 1 Political Theology
 2 Ontological Violence
 3 Plan of the Work
 4 Approaches to Violence

1 Jacques Derrida’s Original Violence
 1 The Early Derrida
 2 Violence in “Violence and Metaphysics”
  2.1 The Violence of Light
  2.2 Phenomenology, Ontology, Metaphysics
  2.3 Difference and Eschatology
 3 Original Violence
 4 Reading “Violence and Metaphysics” with Derrida’s “Préjuges” and “Force of Law”
  4.1 “Before the Law (Préjuges)” (1982)
  4.2 “Force of Law” (1989)
 5 Situating Violence in Derrida

2 Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology and Ontological Peace
 1 Radical Reformation
 2 Radical Orthodoxy
 3 Mennonites, Milbank, and Derrida
 4 The Philosophical Turn in Mennonite Pacifism
 5 Radical Reformation Responses
 6 Chris K. Huebner’s Precarious Peace
 7 Excursus on Yoder’s Patience as Method and Pacifist Epistemology
 8 Peter C. Blum’s Impossible Peace
 9 Pacifist Epistemology Revisited
 10 Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology and Derrida’s Original Violence

3 Grace Jantzen’ Critique of Violent Displacement
 1 What Is Violence?
 2 Grace Jantzen
 3 Derrida, Jantzen, and Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology
 4 The Problem of Metanarratives
 5 Jantzen, the Mennonites, and Derrida
 6 Violence in Death and the Displacement of Beauty
 7 Violence and Displacement
 8 Violence, History, and Master Narratives
 9 Foundations of Violence
 10 Violence to Eternity
 11 A Place of Springs
 12 Violence and History

Conclusion: Violence as the Violation of Value-Laden Boundaries
 1 Derrida’s Original Violence
 2 Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology
 3 The Problem of Displacement
 4 Violence Is the Violation of Value-Laden Boundaries
 5 Violent Intersections
 6 Social Accountability, Violence, and Public Health

Bibliography
Index
The book is relevant to scholars and graduate students interested in ontologies and epistemologies of violence within and beyond French philosophy and deconstruction, philosophical theologies in the Mennonite pacifist tradition, and Grace Jantzen’s feminist philosophy of religion.

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