Program: Inventive Theology, 26-27 October

Inventive Theology
Rhetorics and the Politics of Believing
Symposium | 26-27 October 2022
Singelkerk, Amsterdam (NL)

Theology is always already strategic, aesthetic, and political speech. In light of contemporary issues, this may seem a commonplace. Yet the fruits of ancient and new rhetoric have scarcely been noted in recent theological debate. Join us for conversations exploring theology’s rhetorical character and the place of ars inveniendi, retrieving theology as an intentionally creative interplay of sources and the expanding field of intertext.

Wednesday, 26 October
14:00-17:00 Panel 1: Theology as Performative Speech: Rhetoric and Believing
Chair: Dr. Marius van Hoogstraten

• Trouvaille and Ars Inveniendi: Believing as Creativity – Prof. Chris Doude van Troostwijk
• From Scriptures to Modern Historical Discipline: the Canon and its Counter-cultural Function – Prof. Jaume Aurell

19:30-21:00 Public Lecture

• Theopolitical Figures – Prof. Montserrat Herrero
• Response: Prof. Carl Raschke

Thursday, 27 October
9:30-12:30 Panel 2: Political Aesthetics: Inventing Religious Community
Chair: Prof. Montserrat Herrero

• Prefigurative Politics and Theology – Prof. Peter-Ben Smit
• The Crisis of Political Theology: Schmitt, the Rhetoric of Sovereignty, and the Esthetics of the ‘Exception’ – Prof. Carl Raschke
• Anabaptist Rhetoric of the Deed: Asserting the Ecclesiopolitical – Dr. Marius van Hoogstraten

14:00-17:00 Panel 3: Strategic Aesthetics and the Rhetoric of Believing
Chair: Prof. Chris Doude van Troostwijk

• Dialogical Rhetoric and its Normativity – Prof. Wouter Slob
• Chiffres of Change: Music, Apocalypse, and Losing the World – Prof. Sander van Maas
• Intermezzo – Emma Doude
• Gorgias and Helena: Belief and Conviction – Dr. Emanuel Rutten

17:00-17:30 Final Address

• Closing Observations – Prof. Jean Ehret

Singel 452, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Program may be subject to change. Up-to-date information and registration:
http://www.inventivetheology.com/it2022/

c.h.doudevantroostwijk@vu.nl
m.m.van.hoogstraten@vu.nl
(version: 14-09-22)