Sunday, August 01, 2004
(5:08 PM) | Anonymous:
I'm Being Vulnerable
Because of the great outpouring of advice concerning my future in the academic world I thought you may also be willing to help me fill out each and every application. Posted below is a first draft, a first rough draft of my "Short Statement of Goals" required for application to Villanova university's Department of Philosophy Graduate Program. I have tried to write it avoiding anything in the first person per the suggestion given by Dr. Michael Naas concerning writings of this sort. Very simply, especially those who have gone through this and have been successful, what needs to be changed and what works?Philosophy and theology have long been in discourse with each other, sometimes as friends and other times as enemies, and this continues today. Recently this has manifested itself in the tradition of Deconstruction, seeing what deconstructive readings have to offer theology and expounding on the religious undertones within contemporary thought and even more recently there has been an interest in the writings of Saint Paul and their offerings to contemporary political philosophy. It is important to not make of every philosopher a secret theologian and vice versa but there are exciting possibilities when philosophy and theology come together in critiquing the current state of uncritical slumber. If Marx is correct that "the criticism of religion is the premise of all criticism" then a philosophy which has plugged itself into a theological tradition is able to understand the classic problems along with the contemporary in a new way and is also able to offer new ways of dealing with these problems. A philosophical theology/theological philosophy may be what is needed in this time where we are still pious.
