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Staff Publications
2012
Dr Stephen Bullivant (Theology, Philosophy, and History)
The Salvation of Atheists and Catholic Dogmatic Theology , by Theology and Ethics Lecturer Dr Stephen Bullivant. (Oxford University Press £51.99).
Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-5), the Catholic Church has formally declared the possibility of salvation for atheists: 'those who, without fault, have not yet arrived at an express recognition of God' (Lumen Gentium 16). However, in the very same document, the Council also reiterates the traditional doctrine of the necessity of faith, baptism, and the mediation of Church in order for someone to be saved (Lumen Gentium 14).
This monograph explores how these two seemingly contradictory claims may satisfactorily be reconciled. Specifically, it asks - and ultimately answers - the question: How, within the parameters of Catholic dogmatic theology, is it possible for an atheist to be saved?
As the first full-length study of this topic since Vatican II, the book discusses crucial foundational issues - the understanding of 'atheist' in Catholic theology; the developing views on both unbelief, and the salvation of non-Christians, in the decades preceding the Council - before tackling the conciliar teaching itself.
Considerable attention is then given to the classic solution of imputing an 'implicit' faith to righteous atheists, best known from Karl Rahner's theory of 'anonymous Christians' (though the basic idea was advocated by many other major figures, including Ratzinger, Schillebeeckx, de Lubac, Balthasar, and Küng).
Dr Katherine E Southwood (Theology, Philosophy, and History)
Ethnicity and the Mixed Marriage Crisis, by Biblical Studies lecturer Dr Katherine E Southwood. (Oxford University Press £66.50).
This book aims to bring a new way of understanding Ezra 9-10, which has become known as an intermarriage 'crisis', to the table. A number of issues, such as ethnicity, religious identity, purity, land, kinship, and migration, orbit around the central problem of intermarriage.
These issues are explored in terms of their modern treatment within anthropology, and this information is used to generate a more informed, sophisticated understanding of the chapters within Ezra itself.
Prof Allan Simmons (Communication, Culture & Creative Arts)
The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad, Tales of Unrest edited by Allan Simmons and John Stape. (Cambridge University Press £75).
The Centre for Joseph Conrad Studies at St Mary’s is pleased to
announce publication of two volumes in the Cambridge Edition of the
Works of Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim and Tales of Unrest.
A crucial novel in the development of Conrad as a world author, Lord Jim (1900) has never been out of print since its first appearance. Marked by narrative innovations and psychological complexity, it remains one of the most influential fictions of the twentieth century. The volume is edited by St Mary’s English Research Fellow Dr J H Stape and Ernest W Sullivan II of Virginia Tech University.
Tales of Unrest (1898), Conrad’s first volume of short fiction, evidences a writer firmly in control of his new craft, staking a claim to diverse cultural and fictional territories. It includes ‘An Outpost of Progress’ which the author claimed to be his best short story. The volume is edited by Prof Allan H Simmons and Dr J H Stape.
Both volumes have received the Seal of Approval for Textual Editing from the Modern Language Association’s Committee for Scholarly Editing (CSE). The awards were announced at the MLA’s Annual Convention in Seattle earlier this year. According to Mike Foster, Head of English, “The work of the Centre is central to the research culture in English at St Mary’s.”
Prof Nur Masalha (Theology, Philosophy, and History)
Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory by Nur Masalha. (Amazon £18.99).
2012 marks the 63rd anniversary of the Palestine Nakba (in Arabic literally ‘catastrophe’) - the most traumatic event that ever befell Palestinians. The 1948 Nakba led to the uprooting of the Palestinians and dispersal and fragmentation of the Palestinian people. It also created of the modern world’s most enduring refugee problem.
Today some two-thirds of the 11 million Palestinians are refugees or internally displaced persons; there are nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East and many more worldwide.
The 1948 Nakba occupies a central place in the Palestinian psyche. Memory accounts of the events of 1948 are central to the Palestinian society of today. The Nakba is the demarcation line between two contrasting periods, before and after 1948. It changed the lives of the Palestinians at the individual and national levels drastically and irreversibly; it continues to structure Palestinians’ lives and inform Palestinian culture.
A Spanish-language edition will be published by Edicions Bellaterra in Barcelona later this year.
Dr John Lydon (Theology, Philosophy, and History)
The Contemporary Catholic Teacher: A Reappraisal of the Concept of Teaching as a Vocation in the Catholic Christian Context by John Lydon. (Amazon £66).
In exploring the concept of teaching as a vocation in Christian tradition, this book aims to articulate the essential interconnectedness between four elements: Christ as the foundation of Christian vocation – biblical perspectives, focusing particularly on the concepts of discipleship, emulation and charism.
The way in which that vocation has developed within Christian tradition – historical perspectives focusing on two Religious Orders Current critical scholarship concerning teaching as a vocation Vocation demonstrated in the perceptions and motivations of practitioners.
The research findings were then analysed in the light of the literature review and this was followed by a chapter in which conclusions were reached, structured around the principal elements of both the literature review and the empirical research. Based on these conclusions, a series of recommendations are put forward. focusing primarily on the maintenance of formation programmes both at Diocesan and Religious Order level, the challenge to address the complementary aspects of Christian vocation such as family commitments and the necessity to explore further what might be meant by ‘integrity of life’.
2011
Dr Cian Duffy and Dr Peter Howell (Communication, Culture & Creative Arts)
Cultures of the Sublime edited by Cian Duffy and Peter Howell. (Palgrave Macmillan, £60 Hardback, £21.99 Paperback) 18th October 2011
This critical anthology examines the place of the sublime in the cultural history of the late eighteenth century and Romantic period. Traditionally, the sublime has been associated with impressive natural phenomena and has been identified as a narrow aesthetic or philosophical category. Cultures of the Sublime: Selected Readings, 1750-1830:
- recovers a broader context for engagements with, and writing about, the sublime
- offers a selection of texts from a wide range of ostensibly unrelated areas of knowledge which both generate and investigate sublime effects
- considers writings about mountains, money, crowds, the Gothic, the exotic and the human mind
- contextualises and supports the extracts with detailed editorial commentary.
Also featuring helpful suggestions for further reading, this is an ideal resource for anyone seeking a fresh, up-to-date assessment of the sublime.
Dr Tig Calvert (Management and Social Sciences)
Teach Yourself Hypnosis, for a Better Life by Tig Calvert. (Teach Yourself, £6.39) is due to be published on 30 Sep 2011
Would you like to learn self-hypnosis and specific techniques to help you become a more happy and fulfilled person, or to overcome issues such as anxieties or phobias? Are you interested in how self-hypnosis can help you perform better at work, in relationships, at sport or creatively? This book gives you all you need to gain a thorough understanding of hypnosis and, more importantly, to use practical and safe self-hypnosis techniques to overcome problems and improve all aspects of your life.
If you want to take things further and become a professional, there is also plenty of practical advice and clear guidance.
Dr Victoria Armstrong (Management and Social Sciences)
Technology and the Gendering of Music Education
by Victoria Armstrong (Ashgate Publishing Limited, £50.00) published on 9th September 2011.
Critical of technologically determinist assumptions underpinning current educational policy, Victoria Armstrong argues that this growing technicism has grave implications for the music classroom where composition is often synonymous with the music technology suite.
The use of computers and associated compositional software in music education is frequently decontextualized from cultural and social relationships, thereby ignoring the fact that new technologies are used and developed within existing social spaces that are always already delineated along gender lines. Armstrong suggests these gender-technology relations have a profound effect on the ways adolescents compose music as well as how gendered identities in the technologized music classroom are constructed.
Drawing together perspectives from the sociology of science and technology studies (STS) and the sociology of music, Armstrong examines the gendered processes and practices that contribute to how students learn about technology, the repertoire of teacher and student talk, its effect on student confidence and the issue of male control of technological knowledge. Even though girls and female teachers have technological knowledge and skill, the continuing material and symbolic associations of technology with men and masculinity contribute to the perception of women as less able and less interested in all things technological.
In light of the fact that music technology is now central to many music-making practices across all sectors of education from primary, secondary through to higher education, this book provides a timely critical analysis that powerfully demonstrates why the relationship between gender and music technology should remain an important empirical consideration.
Prof Philip Esler (Principal)
Sex, Wives, and Warriors: Reading Biblical Narrative with Its Ancient Audience by Prof Philip F Esler (Wipf & Stock, 420pp, $46.00) was published on 9th June.
Why and how should we read Old Testament narrative? This book provides fresh answers to these questions. First, it models possible readers of the Bible – religious and nonreligious, professional and nonprofessional – and the reasons that might attract them to it.
Second, with the aid of Mediterranean anthropology, it sets out an approach that helps us to interpret a selection of narratives with a cultural understanding close to that of an ancient Israelite. Powerful stories, such as those of Tamar and Judah in Genesis 38, Hannah in 1 Samuel 1-2, Saul and David in 1 Samuel, David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 10-12, and Judith, burst into new light when understood in closer relation to their original audience.
Interpreted in this way, these narratives allow us to refresh the memory that links us with pivotal stories in Jewish and Christian identities, they disclose more ample possibilities for being human, they foster our capacity for intercultural understanding, and they provide aesthetic pleasure from their embodying plots of great imaginative power.
Dr Mark Donnelly and Dr Claire Norton (Theology, Philosophy and History)
Doing History by Dr Mark Donnelly and Dr Claire Norton (Routledge; 1 edition, 256pp, £12.99) was published on 20th June.
History as an academic discipline has dramatically changed over the last few decades and has become much more exciting and varied as a result of ideas from other disciplines, the influence of postmodernism and historians' incorporation of their own theoretical reflections into their work.
The way history is studied at university level can vary greatly from history at school or as represented in the media and Doing History bridges that gap. Aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students of history this is the ideal introduction to studying history as an academic subject at university.
Doing History presents the ideas and debates that shape how we do history today, covering arguments about the nature of historical knowledge and the function of historical writing, whether we can really ever know what happened in the past, what sources historians depend on, and whether historians’ versions of history have more value than popular histories.
This practical and accessible introduction to the discipline introduces students to these key discussions, familiarises them with the important terms and issues, equips them with the necessary vocabulary and encourages them to think about, and engage with, these questions. Clearly structured and accessibly written, it is an essential volume for all students embarking on the study of history.
Prof Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok (Theology, Philosophy and History)
Introduction to Zionism and Israel: From Ideology to History by Prof Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok (Continuum, 272pp, £14.99) is due to be published on 1st December.
In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in Middle Eastern affairs. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is a constant theme on television and in newspapers. The images of heavily armed soldiers facing young Palestinian children hurling stones - like Goliath facing David - have evoked dismay and consternation.
Throughout the world, anger has been expressed at the Jewish nation. Yet there is considerable misunderstanding about the origins and ideology of the Zionist movement and the transformation of these ideas into historical events.
This volume seeks to provide a concise and comprehensive guide to the development of the Zionism from its inception in the nineteenth century and the history of the Jewish state until the present day.
Dr Peter Tyler (Theology, Philosophy and History)
The Return to the Mystical: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Teresa of Avila and the Christian Mystical Tradition by Dr Peter Tyler (Continuum, 296pp, £18.99)
The Spanish Carmelite reformer, Teresa of Avila and the Austrian professor of logic, Ludwig Wittgenstein do not at first sight seem to be the most obvious of bed fellows. Yet, in this strikingly original work, Dr Peter Tyler argues that both were galvinised through their reading to 'see the world aright' by a radical form of writing known as 'mystical'.
As young adults both were in turmoil, loneliness and despair, yet found in this style of writing personal transformation, commitment and, most of all, engagement with the world. This new 'path to the heart', argues the author, is what makes their writing so powerful and transformational to this day.
2010
Dr Peter Tyler (Theology, Philosophy and History)
St John of the Cross - Outstanding Christian Thinker (Continuum, 180pp, £14.99) was included in the ‘Books of the Year’ Section in The Tablet on 27th November 2010.
The book written by Dr Peter Tyler, Senior Lecturer in Pastoral Theology and Programme Director of the MA in Pastoral Theology at St Mary’s, is the fruit of many years of study of the Spanish saint.
Men celebrated by later generations normally achieve fame through their contribution to a particular area of human endeavour. San Juan de la Cruz (1542-91) achieved greatness on two counts; in the realm of spirituality, as a mystic; in literature, as a poet.
He stands at a high peak in the mystical tradition of the Christian west. The Mystical Doctor of The Roman Catholic Church, he is also regarded by many as one of the greatest lyrical poets that Spain has ever produced. To understand and explore his work, both sides of his achievement must be examined.
In this book, Peter Tyler shows how the roots of the Western mystical tradition go very deep and the discovery of Dionysius profoundly altered the direction of this tradition. Here is as clear an exposition as it is possible to find of the life and teachings of the diminutive Carmelite Friar whose influence has been so very profound.
