Gavin Hyman's research explores the implications of contemporary continental philosophy and cultural theory for religious thought, and, conversely, explores the ways in which theology both contributes to and calls into question contemporary philosophical and cultural assumptions, These interests were manifested in his first book, The Predicament of Postmodern Theology (2001), a critical exploration of the relationship between two antithetical forms of postmodern theology: 'radical orthodoxy' and 'nihilist textualism'. More recently, he has extended these explorations into the ethical and political arenas, and has recently completed a book entitled Traversing the Middle: Ethics, Politics, Religion, which will be published in 2013. It engages with the work of some of the most prominent contemporary theorists, including Alain Badiou, Slavoj Zizek and John Milbank, arguing that their thought in many ways merely inverts the difficulties they identify in postmodern approaches and thus do not effectively escape them. It articulates an alternative disposition which may be described as a ‘traversing of the middle’ in the ethical, political and religious spheres. He has also developed research interests in the cultural and philosophical history of atheism. In particular, he is interested in the epistemological shifts that created the conditions for the emergence of atheism in the early modern period, and in exposing the hidden philosophical (and often religious) presuppositions underlying contemporary manifestations of atheism. He has contributed to The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (2006) and has written A Short History of Atheism (2010).
Gavin Hyman welcomes research proposals in the following areas, broadly conceived: Christian studies: theological, philosophical and historical approaches; Philosophy and religious thought; Postmodernism, theology and ethics; Continental philosophy; Religion and Psychoanalytic Thought.
Degrees
M.A. (Exon.), Ph.D. (Cantab.)
Personal and Career details
Gavin Hyman is Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at the University of Lancaster. He is 38 years old, and has been at Lancaster for the past thirteen years. At Exeter, he read Theology at the University and was also a Choral Scholar at the Cathedral. He subsequently read for a doctorate at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is a specialist in continental philosophy and religious thought, although his interests are not confined to these subjects. He serves on the departmental Management Committee and, beyond the department, he is University Public Orator and Vice-Principal of The County College. He was recently a Visiting Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford.
Gavin Hyman's research explores the implications of contemporary continental philosophy and cultural theory for religious thought, and, conversely, explores the ways in which theology both contributes to and calls into question contemporary philosophical and cultural assumptions.His first book, The Predicament of Postmodern Theology (2001) explored the relationship between two antithetical forms of postmodern theology: 'radical orthodoxy' and 'nihilist textualism'. It also raised the scaffolding for a form of religious reflection which avoids both the absolutism of radical orthodoxy on the one hand and the relativism of nihilist textualism on the other.
More recently, he has extended these explorations into the ethical and political arenas, and has recently completed a book entitled Traversing the Middle: Ethics, Politics, Religion, which will be published in 2013. It engages with the work of those who have called for the “return of the metanarrative” or insisted on the necessity of the domain of the “universal” on specifically ethical and political grounds. They have argued that the psotmodern trajectory has led to a debilitating impasse when faced with the contemporary hegemony of global capitalism. Through detailed engagements with the work of Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank—as well as discussions of the work of Simon Critchley, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri—the book argues that many contemporary thinkers merely invert the problems intrinsic to postmodernism and therefore do not effectively escape them. It argues that the ethical and political are best preserved and perpetuated through the negotiating of an ongoing tension between the domains of the universal, the particular and the singular. To proceed thus would be to traverse the terrain of the middle—ethically, politically and religiously.
He has also developed research interests in the cultural and philosophical history of atheism. In particular, he is interested in the epistemological shifts that created the conditions for the emergence of atheism in the early modern period. He is also interested in exposing the hidden philosophical (and often religious) presuppositions underlying contemporary manifestations of atheism. He has contributed to The Cambridge Companion to Atheism and has written A Short History of Atheism (2010).
Publications
BOOKS:
The Predicament of Postmodern Theology: Radical Orthodoxy or Nihilist Textualism? (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001).
(ed.), New Directions in Philosophical Theology: Essays in Honour of Don Cupitt (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).
A Short History of Atheism (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010).
Traversing the Middle: Ethics, Politics, Religion (Eugene, OR: Casacade, forthcoming, 2013).
ARTICLES:
Articles have appeared in Theology, New Blackfriars, The Heythrop Journal, Literature and Theology, Modern Believing, The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Theology Today and Approaching Religion. Essays have also appeared in a number of edited volumes, such as The Future of Liberal Theology, edited by Mark Chapman and The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, edited by Michael Martin.
