The End of History: Apocalypse, Economy, and Ecology (CT3709T)

Content

In this unit, students will explore various discourses of the end of history as they have developed in the post-WWII world and their impact upon our current intersecting climate and economic crises. On the far side of the Cold War, seeing the fall of the Berlin Wall as a sign, American philosopher Francis Fukuyama claimed that history had ended in the final victory of liberal capitalism and the end of ideological struggle. Many consider the 1990’s to be emblematic of this end of history. However, a new end of history is now on our horizons in the form of ecological catastrophe brought on by the developmental forces leading to the universalization of liberal capitalism. Indeed, cracks are appearing in the liberal capitalist democratic project from a number of angles: immigration and refugee crises, ecological catastrophe, reenergized nationalisms, and economic crisis. Students will explore the history of these developments, the theological visions inspiring various thinkers involved here, and the eco-theological and political theological resources on offer to negotiate these problems in the doctrines of creation and eschatology.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

Students should have completed at least one Undergraduate Level 2 unit in CT or AP.

Pedagogy

Lectures, tutorials, online discussion, forum

Indicative Bibliography

• Giorgio Agamben. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Trans., Daniel Heller Roazen. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998.
• ___________. State of Exception. Trans., Kevin Attell. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
• Thomas Bierbreicher. The Political Theory of Neoliberalism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics. In, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 6. Ed., Clifford J. Green. Trans., Reinhard Krauss, Charles C. West, and Douglas W. Scott. Minneapolis, MA: Fortress Press, 1996.
• Wendy Brown. Walled States, Waning Sovereignty. New York, NY: Zone Books, 2010.
• _________. Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. New York, NY: Zone Books, 2015.
• David Clough. On Animals II: Theological Ethics. London & New York: T&T Clark, 2019.
• Francis Fukuyama. The End of History and the Last Man. New York, NY: Free Press, 1992.
• Scott A. Kirkland and John C. McDowell. Eschatology. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2018.
• Michael Northcott. A Political Theology of Climate Change. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013.
• Bruce Pascoe. Dark Emu. Broome: Magabala Books, 2016.
• Quinn Slobodian. Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.
• Rowan Williams. Christ the Heart of Creation. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2018.

Assessment