Phenomenology of Religious Belief

Michael J. Shapiro is a professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa, USA. His books include The Political Sublime (2018), and Punctuations: How the Arts Think the Political (2019).

• An Introductory Preface: Phenomenology and the Aesthetics of Political theology Chapter 1: The Phenomenology of Belief: Media Technologies and Communities of SenseChapter 2: The Politics of Zealotry: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Saint PaulChapter 3: Ingmar Bergman: Theatricality versus TheologyChapter 4: Philip Dick’s Media-focused Religious PracticesChapter 5: William James and Michel Foucault: The Will to Believe/the Will to truth.Conclusion

“Who is eligible to enter the inexhaustible conversation about how to experience life”? asks Michael Shapiro in this brilliant and wide-ranging book. Like a 21st century William James, Shapiro restages traditional questions of theology in connection with theatricality, cinema, and phenomenology. Focused on “media-involved disruptive events, either actual or imagined,” Shapiro moves from scenes of personal despair to worldly challenges like climate change. Following an itinerary both quirky and necessary, the Phenomenology of Religious Belief is a must-read for those working in religious studies, political theory, cinema studies, and phenomenology.