April 12 - “Curative Eschatology: Christian Ableism and Religious Cripistemology”, a talk by Joshua St. Pierre

Join us on Friday, April 12 from 4:00-6:00 PM MDT in person, in the Philosophy Department seminar room (Assiniboia Hall 2-02A), or online for "Curative Eschatology: Christian Ableism and Religious Cripistemology", a talk by Joshua St. Pierre.

Abstract: Using a “cripistemological” approach, this paper engages a fundamental site of Christian ableism: the expected cure of disability in the afterlife. I offer the term “curative eschatology” to describe the affectively charged promise that a transcendent, final deliverance will remake the nature of bodyminds without the possibility of decay or suffering. I argue that insofar as eschatology is itself defined by a temporal structure of “already / not yet” that mingles present and future, curative eschatology informs present-day religious thought and practice by circulating preconscious affects like anxiety and resentment against conditions of existence that necessitate pain and suffering. This project invites non-religious readers to consider Christian ableism not as a niche concern, but a growing power that, latent or not, shapes policy, institutions, and larger moral frameworks within a post-secular context. I conclude by imagining Crip nontheistic religious practice that affirms, through Crip ritual, a joyful world of becoming and the tragic view of life it entails.

Speaker: Joshua St. Pierre is Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Critical Disability Studies and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Working at the intersection of critical disability studies and contemporary political theory, his research focuses on the interplay of communication and disability within information societies. His first monograph is titled Cheap Talk: Disability and the Politics of Communication, published by University of Michigan Press.

Zoom ID: 920 6023 5649
Passcode: 470504