What would it be like if we took the godlessness of our world seriously? What would it look like if the religious looked at our world religiously?
The 19th Century German philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche insisted that the increasing irrelevance of God to the European intellectual life would fundamentally disrupt humanity’s relationship with the cosmos, leaving us to search for meaning in an ultimately meaningless universe. Furthermore, Nietzsche was nothing but derisive of the fashionable atheists of his day who thought that they could simply do away with God and get along with pursuing truth and the Good as if nothing had changed.
In this talk Dave Taylor examines what it might mean to take seriously the death of God in the way that we look at the universe and humanity’s place in it. To do this Dave will look at the genres of absurdist comedy and cosmic horror as ways that our culture plays with our suspicions about the absurd nature of reality.
Finally, Dave will examine the ways in which the classical Christian philosophical tradition has understood the universe, arguing that through this vision of the world, absurdist comedy and cosmic horror might be transfigured into the alternative categories of the mysterious and the apocalyptic.
About the speaker: Dave Taylor is founder and director of PEACEtalks and has a passion for making the Church a host for important conversations about life, the world and everything. Dave recently completed his research masters in philosophy where he wrote about areas of environmental and legal abandonment called ‘sacrifice zones’ through the lens of critical theory. Dave, along with his wife Sarah, attends St George’s Anglican Church, Paddington.
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!