Why do religious claims seem to be unable to gain traction in contemporary culture? Very often even the religious individual themselves seems to have a hard time holding their own beliefs to be true in any significant way. How did this situation come about? Is it just the inevitable outworking of the success of science leaving less and less room for God in the modern mind? (Don’t worry it’s not going to be another one of those talks.) For our July PEACEtalk, Dave Taylor talked to us about some of the influences he sees as shaping the way we as a culture put the world together. In particular, Dave looked at the ways in which the centrality of economic and market-based reasoning has taught us an approach to thinking that is incompatible with the pursuit of God and has led to the creation of a culture where even the religious are irreligious.
About the speaker: Dave Taylor is the founder and coordinator of PEACEtalks as well as the community engagement worker for Paddington Anglican Church. He is currently finishing up a thesis on the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Dave’s main academic interests are in critical theory, political theology, and the history of ideas. Dave and his wife Sarah live in an intentional community in the rectory of Paddington Anglican.
About PEACE: PEACEtalks is a monthly event hosted by Paddington Anglican Church aimed at serving the community by promoting and cultivating deep conversations about life, the world and everything. ‘PEACE’ stands for ‘political, ethical, artistic & cultural engagement’. As such, our events seek to take all of these areas of our shared humanity seriously in a world where such things are often marginalised. We also seek to demonstrate the ways in which spiritual and theological reflection enable us to look at all of these important areas afresh. All welcome!