Misrecognitions

This collection brings together prominent thinkers from numerous disciplines to address the legacy of Gillian Rose for political theology today. Rose's work is notorious for its eclectic range, difficult style, and iconoclastic defiance of the conventions of postmodern critical theory. The theologians, religious scholars, ethicists, and theorists in this collection discuss Rose's relationship to such topics as the Frankfurt School, social theory, feminism, literature, law, Hegel, Kant, and psychoanalysis. They situate her work within the wider context of political theology, as it is understood in religious studies and continental philosophy. Though attentive to the theoretical issues raised by Rose's work, these essays are also engage the role that work may play in political action today, examining issues such as refugee immigration in Europe, the rise of nationalism, and anticapitalist political organizing. The collection is a vital contribution to the rising body of literature on Rose and her importance to political philosophy, ethics, and theology, but it will also serve as an important orienting guide for readers new to Rose's work and its demanding style.


""This is a most welcome set of essays, perfectly titled as Misrecognitions, taking up, as it does, Gillian Rose's challenge to conceive of modernity according to its own misrecognitions of itself . . . The book works as an introduction for those new to Rose's work, exploring some of the ideas by which she is now becoming increasingly well known. But it also feeds the appetite of more experienced Rose readers in challenging aspects of her thinking from across her oeuvre. The collection will ensure her continued participation in philosophical and political debates in a variety of cultural theatres. In sum, the book is the voice of the current generation of Rose scholars, and is to be warmly welcomed and highly recommended.""
--Nigel Tubbs, Professor of Philosophical and Educational Thought, University of Winchester, UK

""Gillian Rose's stature grows with every year that passes. Her probing of the fundamental recognitions and misrecognitions of each other's humanity that are bound up in living under law is the sort of intellectual goad we desperately need in a global political culture rapidly slipping back to tribalism. This excellent collection of studies shows what a resource her thought can be in such a context.""
--Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge


Joshua B. Davis is the dean of the Alabama Integrative Ministry School for the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama and is an adjunct instructor in Religion at Samford University.