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Fanny Cradock

This might be worth turning into a sticky.

Anyway, I've been tipped off by antiskeptic that Terry Eagleton is giving a talk entitled What is Evil? on the Fri, 16th of this April as part of the TCD Week. (Booking essential)

For many people, evil is an outmoded concept. It smacks too much of absolute judgments and metaphysical certainties to suit the modern age. In this talk, Terry Eagleton will launch a surprising defence of the reality of evil.

Eagleton will investigate the frightful plight of those doomed souls who apparently destroy for no reason. In the process, he poses a set of intriguing questions. Is evil really a kind of nothingness? Why should it appear so glamorous and seductive? Why does goodness seem so boring? Is it really possible for human beings to delight in destruction for no reason at all?

Eagleton first came to my attention after he wrote this review of The God Delusion.

hivizman

Thanks for the info, Fanny!

I had for a long time associated Terry Eagleton with Marxist literary theory, so his recent writings in which he has returned to his boyhood roots in Roman Catholicism have been quite a revelation. His latest book, based on a series of lectures in 2008 at Yale University, is Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, just out in paperback, and it expands on his earlier criticisms of Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and others (lumped together as "Ditchkins"). He also wrote The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction (published in 2008), which probably contains the answers to half the issues raised on this forum.

Fanny Cradock

Thank antiskeptic.

I might just have to check out the last book you mentioned.

PDN

hivizman wrote: »

earlier criticisms of Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and others (lumped together as "Ditchkins").

Ditchkins! Now that has a ring to it. Sort of like Munchkins, but grubbier.

antiskeptic

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

This might be worth turning into a sticky.

Anyway, I've been tipped off by antiskeptic that Terry Eagleton is giving a talk entitled What is Evil? on the Fri, 16th of this April as part of the TCD Week. (Booking essential)



Eagleton first came to my attention after he wrote this review of The God Delusion.

I gather he's an atheist so perhaps some of our freer-thinking brethern here might make it along to hear The One who summed Dawkins up (per TGD) as "theologically illiterate".

iUseVi

antiskeptic wrote: »

I gather he's an atheist so perhaps some of our freer-thinking brethern here might make it along to hear The One who summed Dawkins up (per TGD) as "theologically illiterate".

He's Christian.

Fanny Cradock

Either way I've not seen anything definitive to suggest where his convictions lie.

iUseVi

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

Either way I've not seen anything definitive to suggest where his convictions lie.

From wikipedia, but its a direct quote from one of his recent books "Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate":

Regarding his own beliefs, Eagle commented in Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate that "one of the best reasons for being a Christian, as well as a socialist, is that you don't like having to work, and reject the fearful idolatry of it so rife in countries like the United States. True civilizations do not do predawn power breakfasts."

Fanny Cradock

Yeah, I saw that. But I've also seen other quotes (admittedly nothing from him) that suggestions he is an atheist. I'm a little confused. Anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter for the purposes of the debate.

iUseVi

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

Yeah, I saw that. But I've also seen other quotes (admittedly nothing from him) that suggestions he is an atheist. I'm a little confused. Anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter for the purposes of the debate.

True enough. Although his numerous books on "new left theology" suggest certain.....leanings.

EDIT: If there's a Q & A maybe someone should ask? :OP

Fanny Cradock

I prefer to sit and judge in silence.