Critical Theory and Early Christianity

Matthew G. Whitlock (PhD, The Catholic University of America, 2008) is Associate Professor of New Testament at Seattle University. His research focuses on Acts of the Apostles, the Apostle Paul, New Testament Poetry, Critical Theory, and Science Fiction. His publications have focused on topics ranging from New Testament poetry in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly to the Body Without Organs and Christianity in Deleuze and Guattari Studies. He is currently working on a book of dialectical images from the science fiction of Philip K. Dick and from the letters of the Apostle Paul.

• Preface: Dialectical Images and Critical Theory Mathew G. Whitlock1. Introduction: Making Early Christian Texts Strange (Again)Matthew G. Whitlock Part I Walter Benjamin 2. Walter Benjamin and Early Christian Texts Matthew G. Whitlock3. Reading, Libraries, and Urban Change in the Shadow of Capitalism and Apocalypse: Reading Walter Benjamin and John of PatmosRobert Paul Seesengood, Albright College, Pennsylvania 4. “On the Concept of History”: St. Augustine and Walter BenjaminC.A. Levenson, Idaho State University Part II Gilles Deleuze 5. Gilles Deleuze and Early Christian Texts Matthew G. Whitlock6. The Deleuzioguattarian Body of Christ without OrgansB. H. McLean, University of Toronto 7. The Many Acts of the Apostles: Simulacra and SimulationMatthew G. Whitlock and Philip Tite, University of Washington 8. Face-ing the Nations: Becoming a Majority Empire of God Reterritorialization, Language, and Imperial Racism in Revelation 7:9-17Sharon Jacob, Pacific School of Religion Part III Alain Badiou 9. Alain Badiou and Early Christian Texts Matthew G. Whitlock10. Christianity Appears First, As Itself Bruce Worthington, University of Toronto 11. Towards a Vulgar Marxist Reading of Christian Origins TodayJames Crossley, St Marys University, London 12. Recapitulating the Event: Reading Irenaeus with BadiouHollis Phelps, Mercer University, GeorgiaPart IV Judith Butler 13. Judith Butler and Early Christian Texts Matthew G. Whitlock14. Paul Exposed: Reading Galatians with Judith Butler Valérie Nicolet, Institut protestant de théologie, faculté de Paris 15. Mattering Bodies: Animacy and Justice in Origen’s On First PrinciplesPeter Anthony Mena, University of San Diego