James Alison Theology

Texts

  • Creation fulfilled and the Book of Revelation: some questions about order, disorder and the “apocalyptic” genre

    The destruction of the Temple is prophesied, and wars, revolutions, turbulence, plague and famine all foretold. But.. do not allow your heads to be turned by all this, avert your gaze, do not attribute any sort of divine significance to any of this… The real coming of the son of man will be like a…

  • Interdividuals, individuals and fragmented selves: how can mimetic theory help us understand “huiothesia*”?

    Rather than being people who are first ordered, and then fall from order (and so are dis-graced), and then restored to order by forgiveness, understood as a form of pity from on high, we may find it possible to tell another story: we start as those who are not yet ordered, and find ourselves being…

  • Scapegoat: how civilisation harms and how the Cross heals

    It’s a word we’re all familiar with, it’s through the violence of the scapegoating mechanism that civilisations are built. And, it is through the scapegoating mechanism that the cross heals. It’s a fascinating way of understanding the atonement, especially for those of us disillusioned with models of atonement that require a violent God.

  • Eucharist: the mystery of the daring Creator

    A radical new way of thinking about the relationship between Creation and the Atonement leads James Alison to consider a framework for the Eucharist in which ‘the Creator and Redeemer is engaged in an act of daring’. Read on Thinking Faith

  • We’re in for a rough ride

    In the clerical closet, dishonesty is functional, honesty is dysfunctional, and the absence or presence of circumspect sexual practice between adult males is irrelevant.

  • Violence: how it forms us and how we can be self-critical about it

    There is a third dimension to Girard’s insight which is of particular interest to theologians. The mechanism described is omnipresent in human society, and depends, in order to work, on those involved not knowing that their blamed one is in fact arbitrarily chosen, or innocent. What is it, then, that has enabled anyone to face…

  • “My sheep hear my voice and I know them”: reflections on language, tone, and teaching in the space between Magister and Magisterium

    What does it mean to be taught by Christ? Genuinely to undergo being taught by him? So that any one of us could say, after reflective consideration “I have learned this or that from Christ”, or others could pick one, or several, of us out and say: “They are who they are because they have…

  • Christ Crucified: the power of God and the wisdom of God

    Transcribed by Rev. Karen Hanson from the audio recording of the talk given to the Leeds Church Institute (Leeds, England) in April 2018. Good afternoon. Well, thank you very, very much for having me and thank you for challenging me to come up with something I hope may be useful to talk about. One of the challenges…

  • Oracles, prophets, and dwellers in silence: hints of the “pati divina” in the theology that is being birthed

    This paper, which was originally presented at the First International Congress of Theology Students, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá Colombia, now appears as the Introduction to M. Laird and S. Treflé Hidden (eds.) The Practice of the presence of God: theology as a way of life (New York and London: Routledge 2017) Thank you for inviting…

  • Failure and perfection

    A contribution to the volume entitled “Perfection” from the “Oneing” series, published by the Center for Action and Contemplation, and headlined by Richard Rohr. As a small child, I had two favourite picture books. One was Ferdinand the Bull, whom I loved to see sitting under the cork tree smelling flowers while the bullfighters raged. Of…

  • Love in a changing climate

    The place of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics in the church family was the controversial issue the synod chose to avoid. Does the minimal reference to them in the final document confirm deadlocked thinking, or offer hopeful grounds for change?

  • Taking Cinderella to the Ball: How a Mimetic Anthropology Restores the Theological Virtue of Hope

    Many of us live with a characterisation of each of the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity that is run from within by at least a strong residue of a modern, individualistic, picture of the self. The result is that… a caricature of what those virtues are.

  • Biography and interview on the LGBT Religious Archives Network website

    James’ biography and interview (audio and text) on the LGBT Religious Archives Network website (2014)

  • Traversing hostility: the sine qua non of any Christian talk about Atonement

    Presentation for the Colloquium ‘For Us and for Our Salvation: René Girard and the Doctrine of Atonement’, held at Heythrop College, London (7-8 November 2014) 1. Recovering Our Lord’s account of His Atonement In each of the three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus teaches the parable which we know as that of the “Wicked Tenants” or the “Murderous…

  • Towards global inclusion of LGBT people within Catholic communities: a new theological approach

    Presentation for “The ways of Love”, an International Conference towards pastoral care with homosexual and trans people (Rome, Italy, October 3, 2014). Also available in Italian. Introduction I’d like to ask you to join me as we imagine ourselves as participants in a familiar scene from Scripture. The scene is from Acts 10, but imagined from…

  • Renewing the Tradition

    James’ profile by Grant Kaplan, an associate professor of systematic theology at Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Mo., published by the America magazine. Renewing the Tradition: The theological project of James Alison Same in PDF (pp. 25-27). An interview recorded by Prof. Grant Kaplan:

  • Monotheism and idolatry: preface to a conversation

    Presentation for the Colloquium on Mimetic Theory and Islam (Heythrop College, University of London, 5-7 November 2013) Introduction Some privileges are fairly useless. For instance, the privilege of the foreigner’s insight. As a professional foreigner, I have this in spades, for I’ve lived in several countries other than my country of birth, and indeed live…

  • We didn’t invent sacrifice, sacrifice invented us: unpacking Girard’s insight

    A contribution to the International Theological Journal “Concilium” 2013(4) on the Ambivalence of Sacrifice. Also available in Italian. 1. The insight Over the last fifty years René Girard has developed a single anthropological insight, through rigorous engagement with a multitude of disciplines, into a long argument about the origin of culture. The single insight, sometimes called…

  • Exploring the new paradigm: Girard and the Christianity of the 21st century

    Exploring the new paradigm: Girard and the Christianity of the 21st century [PDF] The transcript of the session with Brian McLaren and James Alison recorded at the 2013 Colloquium on Violence and Religion held at the University of Northern Iowa, USA.

  • Lent 2013 Lectionary meditations

    The Christian Century Magazine has generously allowed us to post James’ Lent 2013 Lectionary meditations (PDF), written especially for them. Christian Century is, among many other things, a source of lectionary meditations throughout the year. Please give them kudos for allowing us to show something that is normally behind a paywall.

  • Playing for Keeps

    James joined the Playing for Keeps radio show to explore how The Hunger Games and chapter 7 of the Old Testament book of Joshua have something very important in common: a lottery in which the winners get to die for the sake of the community. A transcript of the podcast recorded by the Raven Foundation. Adam Ericksen: Hello and welcome to…

  • Theology as survival

    ho is James Alison? What aspects of your life do you consider most central to your identity? What should people who are curious about you know?

  • Sexuality, dialogue, and the Church

    An interview in the Other Journal “In this interview, Alison speaks with us about his work on the issue of sexuality and about how he attempts to create a dialogical space around this topic in his Catholic context.”

  • The Portal and the half-way house: spacious imagination and aristocratic belonging

    Session 10 of the twelve-session Jesus the Forgiving Victim course Introduction If you’re anything like me, you have been wondering, as we have advanced in our sessions, how what we’ve been looking at bears any relation at all to “life in the Church” as we know it. The forms of institutional life called “Church” with which…

  • Girard and the analogy of desire

    Presentation for the Symposium on René Girard and World Religions at G.T.U. Berkeley, 14-16 April 2011. Introduction If the devil is in the details, then God is in the prepositions, and I want today to look at one such preposition: the little word “for”. I think this to be the most difficult and delicate word to…

  • Sexuality, certainty and salvation

    In this interview with the Australian broadcaster ABC, James Alison reflects on his own experience as a gay Catholic, on the givenness of sexual orientation, and on what he calls “the shape of God’s affection”. (Audio and transcript)

  • “Like being dragged through a bush backwards”: hints of the shape of conversion’s adventure

    Talk for Charles Sturt University, Canberra, 14th September 2010. It is a very great honour to have been asked by you to share some thoughts about conversion in your midst. You have invited me to develop hints of the way that the understanding of Christianity which I have been pursuing in the light of the…

  • From impossibility to responsibility: developing new narratives for gay catholic living

    A talk for the Georgetown University LGBTQ Center delivered on 27 January 2010 as part of the series entitled The Sacred and The Sexual: Deepening the Conversation on Campus. If, on a Sunday evening, I go down to the street on which my apartment block stands in São Paulo, of one thing I can be sure. There…

  • The Fulcrum of Discovery or: how the “gay thing” is good news for the Catholic Church

    Slightly different versions of this talk were given as the 16th Annual Christopher F. Mooney S.J. Lecture on Religion, Church and Society, Fairfield University, Fairfield CT on 22 September 2009, as a presentation for the Catholic Association of Lesbian and Gay Ministries (CALGM) at their annual conference held in Las Vegas NV, from 24-27 September…

  • Brokeheart Mountain: Reflections on monotheism, idolatry and the Kingdom

    A presentation for the annual COV&R Conference held in St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, 8-12 July 2009. This talk was given as part of a day of discussion with distinguished Muslim scholars concerning the “fearful symmetries” between Christianity and Islam. Deutsch In August 2006, I had the pleasure of visiting the Holy Land as part…

  • What sorts of difference does René Girard make to how we read the Bible?

    Presentation for the 2009 Theology and Peace Conference, a gathering of lay people and clergy from many different denominations who are interested in furthering the impact of Girard’s thought through their preaching, teaching and pastoral practice, Chicago, 26 May 2009 I’d like to take us into this question by way of John 5. So imagine…