Lenin, Religion, and Theology blurb by Paul Le Blanc

Paul Le Blanc has written this rather nice blurb for Lenin, Religion, and Theology, due out very soon:

In reading this book (which he surely would have done), Lenin himself might have been amused by Boer’s own gift for the outrageously funny, and perhaps offended by an all-too-apt detection of the religious dimensions of his revolutionary perspectives. Modern-day readers will learn much about the Bolshevik ‘god-builders’ against whom Lenin so fiercely polemicized, and about the ironic twists through which latter-day Bolshevik ‘god-builders’ turned this secular revolutionary into a deity.  Boer’s genuine respect for the man and his thought intertwines in fascinating ways with an intimate knowledge of Christian rhetoric and theology, resulting in a fresh, provocative contribution – to intellectual history, religious studies, and Marxist scholarship. — Paul Le Blanc, Professor of History, La Roche College, USA; Author, Lenin and the Revolutionary Party and Marx, Lenin, and the Revolutionary Experience.

 

Marshall of the …

 

I can say that I am not responsible for this one, but it does feel rather comfortable. I guess it goes with the glowing description of a speech I gave in China last year: ‘a velvet-gloved iron fist’ (David Jasper)

 

A guide to being a communist calvinist

Some more shameless self-promotion: the irrepressible Tripp Fuller – of Homebrewed Christianity - and I did an interview in the quiet corner in Chicago back in November. He’s titled it ‘A guide to being a communist calvinist‘ – not bad, really. The title, I mean.

 

Last phase of the crazy lecture tour

Now in the urban wasteland of Chicago, where the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature are meeting. Checked more specifically what I had agreed to and came up with the following:

American Academy of Religion

18 November (A18-111)

Bible, Theology, and Postmodernity Group and Bible in Racial, Ethnic, and Indigenous Communities Group

Theme: Race Matters in Political Theology

Tat-siong Benny Liew, Pacific School of Religion, Presiding

Sunday – 9:00 AM-11:30 AM

This panel will address and discuss the question of the role that race has or has not played, as well as how race should or should not play, a role in works on political theology.

Panelists:

Roland Boer, University of Newcastle

Eleazar Fernandez, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

Kwok Pui Lan, Episcopal Divinity School

Vincent Lloyd, Syracuse University

Elaine Padilla, New York Theological Seminary

Andrea Smith, University of California, Riverside

Society of Biblical Literature

Poverty in the Biblical World 17 November 2012 (S17-124) 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM Room: W187c – McCormick Place Theme: Debt and generation of wealth and poverty Antoinette Wire, San Francisco Theological Seminary, Presiding Matthew J.M. Coomber, Saint Ambrose University Debt as Weapon: Generating Poverty and Power in Eighth-Century Judah (20 min) Marvin Chaney, San Francisco Theological Seminary Producing Peasant Poverty: Debt Instruments in Amos 2:6b-8, 13-16 (20 min) Kari Latvus, University of Helsinki The indebted and the poor in the Deuteronomistic History (20 min) Roland Boer, University of Newcastle, Australia What exactly did credit mean in the ancient world? (20 min) Rainer Kessler, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Respondent (10 min) Richard Horsley, University of Massachusetts Boston, Respondent (10 min) Discussion (40 min) Ideology, Culture, and Translation 17 November 2012 (S17 – 224 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM Room: S505b – McCormick Place Roland Boer, University of Newcastle, Australia, Presiding (1 min) William John Lyons, University of Bristol From Golgotha to Glastonbury and Beyond: Translating the Ideology of Jewish Burial Piety into the Ideology of English Imperial Exceptionalism (24 min) Martin Friis, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen Translations, adaptations and transformations of Scripture in Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews (24 min) Sabine Dievenkorn, Comunidad Teologica Evangelica de Chile Biblia en lenguaje mas justo. An Objective Critique to Promote a Dream Project (24 min) Break (5 min) Anne Katrine Gudme, University of Copenhagen The Manga Bible: A Clash of Medium and Message? (24 min) Marlon Winedt, United Bible Societies The Role of Bible translation in the Formation of Creole Identity: Voices from the Carribean basin (24 min) James E. Harding, University of Otago “[W]e the Cornyshe men … utterly refuse thys newe Englysh”: Josiah’s Reform, the Western Rebellion, and the Ideology of Uniformity (24 min) Ideological Criticism 19 November 102 (S19 – 316) 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM Room: N230a – McCormick Place Theme: Rethinking Ancient Imperialism and Economics Randall Reed, Appalachian State University, Presiding Christine Mitchell, St. Andrew’s College – Saskatoon Bruce Lincoln and/or the Myth of the Benevolent Persians (20 min) Robert Myles, University of Auckland Homelessness, neoliberalism, and Jesus’ “decision” to go rogue (20 min) Roland Boer, University of Newcastle, Australia Living a Life of Luxury? Subsistence Versus Trade in the Ancient Economy (20 min) Discussion (30 min) Business Meeting

 

Books published – update

The year is beginning to seem ridiculously over-productive in terms of books published.

I have just received word that The Earthy Nature of the Bible is out with Palgrave Macmillan. Fishpond and Amazon are competing to give you a bit of a discount.

That’s the fourth monograph published this year, alongside the paperback of Criticism of Theology.

And then I hear that one of the two edited volumes has just appeared: The Future of the Biblical Past, this one edited with Fernando Segovia. Keeping my hand in biblical criticism (which is really a part-time concern these days), this 400 page collection seeks to map the current status of biblical criticism world-wide and peer into the future. Contributors come from every populated continent on the globe.

The other edited volume due out shortly is Ideology, Culture, and Translation (with Scott Elliott).

Finally, just to keep things ticking over, Haymarket is rushing out the paperback of the big book on Marx and Engels: Criticism of Earth: On Marx, Engels and Theology (volume four of The Criticism of Heaven and Earth Series). The hardcover with Brill has only just appeared. The paperback is due out in April, but already Amazon and Fishpond are offering serious discounts, up to 34% on pre-orders.

P.S. Lenin, Theology, and Religion (over 400 pages) has just gone into production with Palgrave Macmillan and should be out next year.

 

On the road: the crazy lecture tour

For some reason that is beyond me, apart from the lure of at least some fascinating places, I have found myself undertaking the following crazy sequence of keynote addresses and papers over the next five weeks:

1. Spiritual Booze and Freedom: Lenin on Religion

- 13-15 October: keynote address at the 50th anniversary of Beijing Languages and Cultures University.

2. A Revolution is a Miracle: Lenin and the Translatability of Politics and Religion

- 20-23 October: paper at ‘Lenin’s Thought in the 21st Century‘, Wuhan University, China.

3. Venerating Lenin

- 20-23 October: paper at ‘Lenin’s Thought in the 21st Century‘, Wuhan University, China.

4. Old Wine in New Wineskins: Reassessing Dynamic Equivalence

- 25-28 October: keynote address at ‘Translation and Interpretation in the Age of Globalization: Looking Back and Looking Ahead‘, Central Universitar Nord din Baia Mare, Transylvania, Romania.

5. Antonio Negri and the Bible

- 2 November: keynote at ‘The Book of Job in Philosophical Perspective‘, Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, Norway.

6. Miracles Can Happen

- 8-11 November: paper at ‘Weighs Like a Nightmare‘, Historical Materialism 2012, SOAS, London.

7. What Exactly Did Credit Mean in the Ancient World?

- 17-20 November, paper at The Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA.

8. Living a Life of Luxury? Subsistence Versus Trade in the Ancient Economy

- 17-20 November, paper at The Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA.

9. Race Matters in Political Theology

- 17-20 November, panel at The American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA.

 

On radio tomorrow, speaking about utopia and politics

A moment of shameless self-promotion … I will have my two minutes of fame on the ABC’s Radio National Encounter program tomorrow (Saturday), called ‘Heaven and Earth’. I’ll be talking about utopia, religion and politics. The program begins at 5.05 pm, with a repeat on Wednesday October 3 at 1.05 pm. Somewhere in that mix I guess I will turn up. Or, of you prefer, you can listen now at the streaming audio & podcast links on the Encounter website at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/heaven-and-earth/4276300 with a transcript to follow early next week.

All of this is hosted by the irrepressible David Rutledge.

 

China and New Zealand lectures

Soon I am off, for China and New Zealand and a few lectures and papers. In one of my regular acts of shameless self-promotion (thank God I don’t have one of those silly facebook accounts!), the titles:

Venerating Lenin – invited public lecture, Beijing Foreign Languages University, 20 August.

On the Myth of Classicism - keynote address at Renmin University Summer Institute on Christian Culture, Suzhou 27-31 August.

A Dead Spouse, A Vegetable Garden and a Cousin’s Field: On Private Property – paper at Bible and Critical Theory Seminar, Auckland, 1-2 September.

Trading Ventures and Other Tall Tales of the Hebrew Bible – seminar at Otago University, Dunedin, 7 September.

As you can see, both ‘The Matriarch’s Muff’ and ‘The Music Album Musical Bum of the Bible’ have yet to be unleashed.

 

Three new books (shameless self-promotion)

On Friday, the biggie arrived: Criticism of Heaven: The Author’s Cut.

How big? It weighs in at 765 pages – that’s 270 more than the abridged version from 2007:

In other words, the original text, with a shitload of detailed argument, is restored. I’ll soon have information on where this one can be found.

But I thought it should join its mates, two other books also published a couple of months ago:

More than 1300 pages of my verbiage this year alone, but who’s counting?

One more newie to go this year:

 

Rapturama review (in Workers’ Paradise)

It may have appeared five years after the fact, but this reviewer likes the short story by Matt and me in The Workers’ Paradise:

My personal favourites, Matthew Chrulew & Roland Boer’s Rapturama … will remain marked in my copy of the text.