Unnatural Theology : Religion, Art and Media after the Death of God

The failure of secular modernity to deliver on its promise of progress and enlightenment leaves a void that religion is rushing to fill. Yet what kind of religious thinking and doing can be adequate to our posthuman condition? And how can we avoid either embracing religious fundamentalism and fantasy or remaining mired in hopeless atheistic nihilism?

In Unnatural Theology Charlie Gere provides ways of thinking about the possibilities of religion and theology in the context of our highly technologized postmodernity. Taking its cue from a wide range of thinkers, from John Ruskin and Alfred North Whitehead, to Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben, Simon Critchley, Catherine Keller, Bruno Latour, and Timothy Morton, and artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Richard Hamilton, and films including The Incredible Shrinking Man, the book seeks the remnants of theology and religion in the realms of technology and media, and also art, as the basis of potential new religious thinking.

Through an interdisciplinary engagement with these thinkers and artists it develops the notion of an unnatural theology as the basis of a new kind of religious thought that does not insult our intelligence.

“Gere's book proves a provocative and deep analysis of important contemporary issues … Summing Up: Recommended. Ambitious upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” – CHOICE

“Gere has made a significant contribution toward the future of theological thought. Through an exploration of art, language, violence, religious experience and philosophical insight, Gere wagers that there may just be enough within the apparent absence of the divine-its potential and contingency especially-to awaken a new form of religious experience. Providing a deep resonance with radical theologies that do not shy away from nihilism and the secular, but rather search the void present within the name of God itself, Gere opens our eyes toward a reality already sitting before us, waiting to be seen anew.” —Colby Dickinson, Associate Professor of Theology, Loyola University Chicago, USA

“Amidst the multiple afterlives of unorthodox theological reflection, Charlie Gere offers a fresh new voice in Unnatural Theology. He reserves only the name of God as an empty signifier, but this name continues to offer important insights. This concise but sweeping vision combines theory with explorations of media technologies, including photography, pornography, and pop art, to mine the border between belief and nonbelief for what remains significant for any credible theology today.” —Clayton Crockett, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, University of Central Arkansas, USA