Ontologies of Violence

Maxwell Kennel, Ph.D. (2021), McMaster University, is a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Social Accountability at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University. He is the author of Postsecular History: Political Theology and the Politics of Time (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

In Ontologies of Violence Maxwell Kennel renews conversations about the nature of violence by charting a course through Derrida and Mennonite political theology toward Grace Jantzen's celebration of life and beauty. In doing so, Kennel offers a positive vision - or story - of peace that refuses to subordinate difference to a predetermined harmony. The importance of this approach becomes especially clear in the book's conclusion, where Kennel brilliantly engages with intersectional theories of violence and the question of public health. – Jamie Pitts, Associate Professor Anabaptist Studies, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical SeminaryIn this refreshingly original book, Maxwell Kennel carefully guides the reader through complex texts, elucidates thorny philosophical and theological problems, and demonstrates the vitality of Mennonite thinking. Tackling the imposing question of violence’s meaning with sophistication and care, Kennel successfully moves between developing his own voice as a constructive interdisciplinary thinker and charting often-overlooked connections between Continental philosophy and Mennonite theology. It is such a joy to read a book in which each chapter surprises you with unexpected insights. – Vincent Lloyd, Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova UniversityKennel’s Ontologies of Violence does not offer a definition that can become the cornerstone of a political vision. Instead, it undoes easy sloganeering and even challenges the headiest of theorizing in order to bring to the fore what is left unsaid when the term ‘violence’ is said. – Guy Lancaster, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books (November 2023)Kennel’s work provides indispensable insights into the landscape of political theology, philosophy, and social theory. …While Kennel shares Radical Orthodoxy’s critique of the privatization of religion and the myth of purely secular spaces, he does so with a humble dispossession, care, and nuance absent from scholars such as Milbank… Overall, Kennel provides a strong case for an intersectional and nonviolent approach to knowing, thinking, and being in the world. – Andrew Banacos in Reading Religion

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: What Is Violence?1 Political Theology2 Ontological Violence3 Plan of the Work4 Approaches to Violence1 Jacques Derrida’s Original Violence1 The Early Derrida2 Violence in “Violence and Metaphysics”2.1 The Violence of Light2.2 Phenomenology, Ontology, Metaphysics2.3 Difference and Eschatology3 Original Violence4 Reading “Violence and Metaphysics” with Derrida’s “Préjuges” and “Force of Law”4.1 “Before the Law (Préjuges)” (1982)4.2 “Force of Law” (1989)5 Situating Violence in Derrida2 Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology and Ontological Peace1 Radical Reformation2 Radical Orthodoxy3 Mennonites, Milbank, and Derrida4 The Philosophical Turn in Mennonite Pacifism5 Radical Reformation Responses6 Chris K. Huebner’s Precarious Peace7 Excursus on Yoder’s Patience as Method and Pacifist Epistemology8 Peter C. Blum’s Impossible Peace9 Pacifist Epistemology Revisited10 Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology and Derrida’s Original Violence3 Grace Jantzen’ Critique of Violent Displacement1 What Is Violence?2 Grace Jantzen3 Derrida, Jantzen, and Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology4 The Problem of Metanarratives5 Jantzen, the Mennonites, and Derrida6 Violence in Death and the Displacement of Beauty7 Violence and Displacement8 Violence, History, and Master Narratives9 Foundations of Violence10 Violence to Eternity11 A Place of Springs12 Violence and HistoryConclusion: Violence as the Violation of Value-Laden Boundaries1 Derrida’s Original Violence2 Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology3 The Problem of Displacement 4 Violence Is the Violation of Value-Laden Boundaries5 Violent Intersections6 Social Accountability, Violence, and Public HealthBibliographyIndex