"Where Two or Three are Gathered, but Who's Counting?
Nachfolge, als ob ich mehrere Mächte bin."
Peter C. Blum
Professor of Philosophy and Culture, Director of Sociology and Social Thought at Hillsdale College, MI and author of, For a Church to Come: Experiments in Postmodern Theory and Anabaptist Thought (Herald Press, 2013)
This will be an experiment in thinking about discipleship (Nachfolge), as understood in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition, in light of the idea that there is irreducible multiplicity in the individual. “Discipleship as if I am multiple agencies.” Freud opened the twentieth century with the announcement that there are opposed/conflicting powers or agencies (Mächte) in the psyche, and that these agencies operate mostly behind the back of consciousness. Subsequent phenomenological and sociological reflections have reinforced the idea of the self as multiple. I will present an outline of this theoretical trajectory, and explore some ways in which Mennonites might draw from it in thinking about the relationship between the individual disciple and the gathered community (church). A central question will be: Who counts?
Hosted by the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre.
The event will consist of a 30-40 minute lecture followed by discussion time. All are welcome.
Recommended Readings:
First, chapter 5 of For a Church to Come, which is titled “Otherwise Than Totality.” Though Blum's talk will not be directly related, there are some hints in that essay regarding church as the context for his thinking about the individual.
Second, Blum has a general piece that he's written on Freud that was published online. It provides something of an account of how he's been drawn to reading Freud’s work. Here it is on his blog:
https://petercblum.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/freud-among-the-great-books/
47 Queen's Park Cr E
Toronto, ON
Canada
