Sponsored by the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University, the Working Group on Atheological Thought meets several times a semester. We examine the work of writers whose projects could be described as “atheological”—not in that these authors were atheists, but rather in that they sought to radically reconfigure the conceptual landscape mapped out by the received categories of Western theological traditions. The selection of texts is wide-ranging, including not only the work of “paradigmatic” figures such as Georges Bataille but also that of writers with more ambiguous relationships to traditional religion such as Simone Weil.
Our future direction is open-ended—reading options range from apophatic mystics to contemporary queer theorists and beyond—and so those interested in the group are encouraged to develop their own senses of how our work can continue to develop, and of how it can be made more fully interdisciplinary (including through broader engagement with visual and other forms of art). At least one session per term is dedicated to the writing of workshop participants.
To sign up for our mailing list, see here.
Inquiries may be directed to the group’s 2016-17 coordinator, Matt Shafer (matthew.shafer@yale.edu).
FALL 2016: Bataille’s Inner Experience
October 28: Parts 1-3 of Georges Bataille, Inner Experience.
Further meetings TBA.