On Ambivalence and (Anti-)Normativity (or,Theology as a Way of Life?)

ABSTRACT

This essay argues that queer theory’s ongoing reflection about its own disciplinary identity yields insights that could benefit contemporary political theology. Exploring how internal discussions and debates on the queerness of queer theory can serve as an instructive analogy for similar conversations about the “theologicalness” of political theology, this essay proposes two potential insights that can be gleaned. First, political theology should continue to draw on and do theology, but it should not worry about venturing outside the bounds of what is presumed to be the theological. Theological reflection develops from, and also engenders, communicative and critical expressions, which are deeply important theological modes of political theology, central to its identity even as they appear at times to broaden or stray from it. Second, political theology should look more to politics, broadly understood as the various ways of ordering human life and the utilization and manifestation of power in that structuring, for the theology it offers. In these ways and more, this essay concludes, political theology, like queer theory, is both theory and praxis, a body of knowledge and way of life.     

Landscaping for a manufacturer: Humphry Repton's commission for Benjamin Gott at Armley in 1809-10

Humphry Repton's design for Benjamin Gott's park at Armley near Leeds is an extraordinary but little known work, featuring woollen mills in its vistas. This paper discusses the complexity and historical significance of this commission and suggests why it is unique. Repton's design is examined in relation to the general structure and temper of English society, to the local social and economic environment and to the values of Repton and Gott. Repton's theory and practice are placed in the context of the debate on beauty and use in an increasingly industrial society. Benjamin Gott's career and outlook as a cloth merchant and manufacturer are considered in the light of the development of the Leeds woollen industry. At Armley, Repton organized pictorially a landscape that included a steam-powered factory, a water-powered scribbling and fulling mill and clothier homesteads. At the rear of the house he composed a vignette of a ruined abbey. Repton's treatment of these features is reflected in comments by local people and by tourists. These comments also express changing attitudes towards beauty and utility. Having compromised many of his aesthetic and moral principles to satisfy Gott, Repton said nothing about the commission in his published works. The subsequent decline of landscape gardening is examined in relation to the changing temper of English society. A discussion of the theoretical implications of this study concludes that more attention should be paid to the material constitution of landscape images.     

Narratives of climate change: introduction

This paper introduces a special feature on narratives of climate change, containing papers by Richard Hamblyn, Sverker Sörlin, Michael Bravo and Diana Liverman. The feature reflects the rising cultural profile of climate change in the public sphere, as represented, for example, by Al Gore's documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, and art exhibitions devoted to the subject.