Current students
Mr Thomas Lynch
Contact Mr Thomas Lynch (email at t.j.lynch@durham.ac.uk)
Abstract
My research focuses on the role of apocalyptic themes within Hegel’s writings on history and the future. I show that recent scholarship has tended to split into two camps: 1) a group that values the theological heritage of Hegelian concepts and preserves a metaphysical interpretation of his broader work; 2) a group that discards this theological heritage in developing a non-metaphysical interpretation. In contrast to both I offer a third approach, arguing that it is in a non-metaphysical reading of Hegel’s usage of theological concepts that the true import of these concepts becomes evident. Drawing upon aspects of Ernst Bloch, Herbert Marcuse, Gillian Rose and recent Hegelian scholarship, I will argue that this third approach provides a new reading of Hegel’s treatment of history and the future.
I am also a member of the Centre for Catholic Studies.
Research Interests
- Hegel and the Future of Theology
Publications
Journal papers: academic
- Lynch, Thomas (2009). Confessions of the Self: Foucault and Augustine. Telos 146: 124-139.
- Lynch, Thomas (2008). Rephrasing the Question: A Response to Smith. Sociology of Religion 69(4): 459-466.
Journal papers: online
- Lynch, Thomas (2010). Religion and Revolution: Slavoj Žižek’s Challenge to Liberation Theology. International Journal of Zizek Studies 4(4).