Challenging Cultures of Death: Mercy Not Sacrifice

© Institute for Feminism and Religion. All rights reserved.

Background

Julia Kristeva has claimed that we live under a sacrificial social contract. In the light of this claim, our current history, and the political developments that have brought our world to a state of permanent war and to the brink of nuclear disaster, cultural theorists from many disciplines are asking the question: how do we challenge the mechanisms whereby we appear constantly to achieve our identities at the expense of Others ?

The language of sacrifice and martyrdom, international and ecumenical, permeates religious and political discourse and has been culturally elaborated in countless ways. Some theorists argue that the totem secret of our societies is that we periodically send out our young to die, thereby replenishing our political identities. The Reformers and Counter-Reformers challenged sacrifice, but now the sacrifice to end all sacrifices manifests as the war to end all wars.

However, the great prophets of all traditions - radical cultural critics - insistently cried for mercy not sacrifice. Such prophets did not foretell, but imagined and ensured a better future for all of life. In that tradition, feminist cultural theorists seek to forge new symbols, theoretical resources, and disciplinary, spiritual, and artistic practices based on life and mercy rather than on sacrifice and death.

The first in a proposed series, this interdisciplinary event seeks to identify and welcome theoretical, artistic, and other proposals that serve this overall aim.

Venue: Trinity College Dublin

Date: Friday 2nd, Saturday 3rd, Sunday 4th November 2007