Freestyle Christianity

"A machine is not a given, it is a construction; an organization of separate elements. A machine is made up of partial objects, forming a whole out of heterogeneous bits. Not because they belong together. Not because they were meant for each other, but because creation is possible, construction is possible. Nothing is given but the abstract machine—the very possibility to construct, and construction as immanent action." —Petra Carlsson In this episode of The Catacombic Machine Josef speaks to Petra Carlsson about Russian constructivists and #MeToo. Music: Jacob E. Andrade Support: www.patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine Outro: The World Produced by the Imagination of God

The audio for this episode of The Catacombic Machine is taken from the Westar Institute's God Seminar on Religious Naturalism and the Human Future at AAR in Boston which took place in November 2017. Bart Campolo presents, Jeffrey Robbins presides, and Jack Caputo responds along with questions from several others. Special thanks to Alex Waggoner for her hospitality at AAR.  Live audio, music by Matt Baker. Bart Campolo (tenor).

It has been noted that in the age of global capitalism virtually everything is for sale. Nothing lies outside of the reach of the market. Today, education is increasingly instrumental, a means to an end known as the so-called “good life.” Squeezed between the demands of capital and budgetary shortfalls, the global priests of education in turn demand ever greater sacrifices from students such that universities that were once sites for the production of knowledge aimed toward the common good, have now become territories of capitalist reproduction which has led to the creation of an entire generation of indoctrinated, indentured, and thus largely depoliticized subjects.  We live in an age where the Sophists are the chief philosophers, where the Socratic injunction to “know thyself” is transposed such that the means by which we now make ourselves known is a twin inscription upon a capitalist surface. It is at once prescription and postscript whereby desire congeals in collective ritual consumption, as well as one

In this episode of The Catacombic Machine, David speaks to Jeffrey Robbins about Charles Winquist. In the intro Josef reads a text which is available here. Support: https://www.patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine

Matt Baker and Preston Price talks to An Yountae about his book The Decolonial Abyss: Mysticism and Cosmopolitics from the Ruins, published in 2016 by Fordham University Press: The central question Yountae raises is, how do we mediate the mystical abyss of theology and the abyss of socio-political trauma engulfing the colonial subject? What would theopoetics look like in the context where poetics is the means of resistance and survival? This book seeks to answer these questions by examining the abyss as the dialectical process in which the self’s dispossession before the encounter with its own finitude is followed by the rediscovery or reconstruction of the self. In the upcoming episode, Yountae raises a common critique aimed at Deleuze and Guattari, namely that their abstract level of thinking allows for them to be exploited by virtually anyone, and he is then quoted from The Decolonial Abyss: The question that arises is, should not the call for accountability and mourning for the loss and suffering of othe

The most general formulation of the religious problem is the question whether the process of the temporal world passes into the formation of other actualities, bound together in an order in which novelty does not mean loss.   —A.N. Whitehead Support The Catacombic Machine over at patron.com/thecatacombicmachine, and if you are interested in being added to our group on Slack, then email us at: thecatacombicmachine@gmail.com Music by Jonatan Bäckelie

In the season finale of The Catacombic Machine, Josef talks to Tad DeLay about his recently published book The Cynic and the Fool: The Unconscious in Theology & Politics.

In this episode of The Catacombic Machine you will get to listen to a talk given by Bryce Maxwell at University of Chichester during the Radical/ized Religion Event. Support The Catacombic Machine: www.patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine

Josef speaks to cyber philosopher Alexander Bard who is the co-author, with Jan Söderqvist, to the Futurica Trilogy and Syntheism - Creating God in the Internet Age. They're currently working on their fifth book. Early in the episode, Alexander mentions a TEDx talk he gave a few years ago: What if the Internet is God? Support The Catacombic Machine at patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine.

Josef speaks to Ola Sigurdson during the Katakomb Event about Ola's newly published book Heavenly Bodies: Incarnation, the Gaze, and Embodiment in Christian Theology. Support The Catacombic Machine at Patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine

In this episode of The Catacombic Machine Podcast, Josef speaks to theologian Jordan Miller about his new (so far unpublished) book Resisting Theology, Furious Hope. Join Barry Taylor and Josef in Utrecht, Holland: Blossom030 en Geestdrift present: Radical Theology And mark down July 1 in the calendar for The Forest Interface. Finally, support The Catacombic Machine on Patreon.

Josef talks to secular humanist chaplain Bart Campolo. Bart has recently published a new book together with his father Tony Campolo: Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son. There is also a fresh documentary out about Bart and Tony, made by Belfast filmmaker John Wright: Far From The Tree. In the episode Bart mentions a recent article about him in The New York Times, written by Mark Oppenheimer: The Evangelical Scion Who Stopped Believing. Don't forget to buy your tickets to the Katakomb Event in Gothenburg April 21-22: Katakomb.info, and if you're interested in joining Josef and Barry Taylor in Utrecht, Holland, here's information for you: Blossom030 en Geestdrift present. Support The Catacombic Machine at Patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine.

Josef talks to Aaron Van Voorhies about his background as a fundamentalist Christian and his move towards radical theology. Aaron is not only a radical theologian, he is also a pastor, which is an interesting combination. And he has written a book: A Survival Guide for Heretics.

Josef speaks to Conner Habib about desires, sex work, identity, religion, politics, activism and much more. If you want to know more about Conner, check out his homepage: connerhabib.com, follow him on Twitter: @connerhabib. Conner also offers an online course on the occult. Support The Catacombic Machine by becoming a patron of the show: www.patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine

Josef talks to theologian Jeffrey Robbins about postsecularism, democracy, movements of resistance, the American election, trauma, radical theology and much more. Support The Catacombic Machine: www.patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine

Josef talks to theologian and music producer Jonatan Bäckelie about The Subsecular Arts, which is a theological project closely connected to Jonatan's recently released album Darkness On The Edge Of Ecstasy.

The reactive identity politics of the Democrats reduced the complexity of people's hopes and dreams to "black votes," "Hispanic votes," and so on. Hence both the politicians and the metrics people became blind to the excess of possible worlds hiding beneath the surface of skin color, gender, sexuality, religion. Ultimately they were all reduced to a Hillary or Trump vote--the eternal binary code. The silver lining is that many people's refusal to be reduced to a number in a vicious game for power shows that there's a willingness to scramble the code. So while many mourn the lack of votes for Hillary, we're hopeful since the refusal to vote is a sign of people affirming their own difference, and that's the kind of strength that will be needed to overcome the tyranny that now awaits. In today's episode, Josef speaks to James Hill Jr., who is a long time friend of the podcast, about the American election, Malcolm X, evangelicalism and the times ahead. Support the podcast by becoming a patron, and receive access

Josef speaks to comedian Aron Flam about the connection between philosophy and comedy, Nietzsche, Deleuze, antisemitism, feminism, and much more. Check out Aron's YouTube channel, and listen to his Swedish podcast Dekonstruktiv kritik. Support The Catacombic Machine by becoming a patron of the show: www.patreon.com/thecatacombicmachine

Episode number 1 of The Catacombic Machine features a conversation between Josef and philosopher Peter Sjöstedt-H, about his book Noumenautics, published by Psychedelic Press. The book navigates through subjects such as the sentience of cells, the constrictions of consciousness, the metaphysics of might, the magic of mushrooms, the narcotics of Nietzsche, and the neologism neo-nihilism.

In this episode, Joel talks with Andreas Engh Seland, phd candidate in philosophy of religion at Lund University, Sweden. Writing on Sören Kierkegaard's book on the faith of Abraham, Fear and Trembling, Seland develops a innovative concept of "suspense" as a means of explicating a tricky text full of repetitions, paradoxes and references to the philosophy of Hegel.