Theology of 9/11

There are three opportunities during the week to catch a series of lectures by Dr. David Deane of various topics surrounding the christian experience in the aftermath of 9/11. Melissa invited me to one; I went and thought it was really good. We talked of the tension between God's omnipotence and omni-benevolence in a horrific world and Dr. Deane is incredibly deft at opening the subject to very old voices (Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Gregory of Nyssa, etc.) as well as very new ones (Foucault, Moltmann, Neitzche, David Bently Hart, etc) in the theological and philosophical world.

The Coloradoan had an article on this a while back, which I found here which had this quote,
"A lecture and discussion...will be held three times a week at three local churches - John XXIII [Monday], Trinity Lutheran Church [Thursday] and First United Methodist Church [Tuesday]. Deane said several evangelical Christians will attend.."

I believe they are at 7:00pm.

-seth james forwood wrote the above


Here is the syllabus:

September 11th 2001 – A Theological Reflection

This course aims to reflect theologically on the experiences, questions and challenges that are synonymous with 9/11. It aims to do so by looking at the work of some of today’s leading theologians writing about the events of 9/11, but also by engaging in a dialogue with the giants of our theological past on the eternal questions 9/11 brought to the fore. All of this will be conducted in the shadow of the Gospel narrative, the core story through which Christians seek to make sense of the world and how we are to be in it.

For example, almost immediately the word “evil” - a theologically loaded term - was used and while we will discuss Stanley Hauerwas’ and Rowan Williams’ critiques of the use of such terminology after September 01’, we will also look at such questions as “What is Evil”?, “Where does evil come from?” and “how can a omnipotent benevolent God tolerate the suffering of innocents?” as they were looked at by our dialogue partners through theological history.

9/11 caused immense confusion for many Christians in America. Christians who felt threatened and hurt also have their faith rooted in a Gospel which proclaims the Christological imperative to “not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt: 5:39). Christians across America had an immediate and understandable desire to bring terrorists to justice and prison but Christ, in Matthew 25, identifies himself with the imprisoned. How are Christians to make sense of these feelings, hurts and fears engendered by the collective experience of 9/11?

We have discussed at length how to be an American desiring security after 9/11, we have discussed at length the international laws and processes which affect our action, but, have we had a vigorous and critical discussion about how we are to be, as Christians, after 9/11? This course aims bring our theological past and present around the table in the service of such a discussion. It aims to address the events of 9/11 and the issues it raised within a Christian theological perspective in dialogue with the voices of the dead, those of 9/11 and the cycle of violence it participated in, the theologians of history and the victims of the past. Ultimately it asks, in a world shadowed by the events of 9/11, what it means to be followers of that sovereign victim who is the source and destination of all Christian life, Jesus Christ.

Course Reading
We will be using two books in this course, Dissent from the Homeland: Essays after September 11. Edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Frank Lentricchia. (Duke University Press, 2003) each chapter of the book can be read, or printed out, from this online link http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/vol101/issue2/ and Christian Theology: A Reader by Alistair McGrath (Oxford: Blackwells 2001) sections of this book that are in the public domain (such as the first week’s reading) will be emailed to you prior to each class.

Course Outline
Week 1: General Introduction. In his first week we will introduce both the key themes we will be engaging and how we will be engaging them. We will focus on the relationship between the Christian and the state, centering on the nature of the moral framework that orientates the person. To this end we will look at two early Christian texts, from Tertullian and Athenagoras, which look at the relationship between the Christian and the state and claim that in no circumstances can Christians take up arms or strike back, even when one’s life is threatened. Later in the course we will explore other Christian positions, in favor of “Just War” but to introduce the issue, and to illicit our dialog and conversation, we will be confronted with the radicality of Pacifism in the early Church in week one. This week’s readings will be emailed.


Week 2: What is Evil? Here we will discuss the events of the day of 9/11 after having read some short excerpts from McGrath’s reader on “Evil” (Which we be emailed to you). Our goal will be to ask whether “Evil” should be used in relation to 9/11 and if so what are the theological issues involved in such a designation. We will examine some key Christian accounts of “Evil” and also explore the importance of naming and language in establishing the grounds for ethical action.

Week 3: Why do innocent people suffer? Here again we will read short passages from our theological past from Augustine, Luther, Aquinas, and so on, all from the McGrath reader asking this question about suffering. We will read it in them in the shadow of the Gospel, the suffering of those people in the towers, and our own experience of suffering. In our conversation and dialog we will look for a theological model of suffering, what it is and what does it mean to be a victim.

Week 4: What kind of world experienced 9/11? In understanding the reception, worldwide, of 9/11, we need to look at that world which experienced these terrible events; what are the paradigms through which the planes crashing and the victims dying were interpreted? For this we will read John Milbank’s essay “Sovereignty, Empire, Capital and Terror” from Dissent from the Homeland p 63-83. This reading can be found through the link http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/vol101/issue2/
This reading is very radical, and some may find it offensive, such radicality however can help us to think about some major issues arising from 9/11 that we rarely engage with, such as “What is the power of a sovereign state and on what authority does it function?”, “On what grounds do we feel that only a sovereign state has the power to kill, through war, the death penalty or economic sanctions?”, “can the reaction of sovereign states to 9/11 be seen as a desperate attempt to preserve their authority as theirs alone when the legitimating principles on which they’re based (divine right of kings, belief in the “truth” of popular vote) are far less believable than ever before?

Week 5: The voice of the Other - part 1 Here we will look at the experience of Muslims in America as the world experienced 9/11. We will look at some key aspects of Islam and the story of Islamic development since 1967. We will also explore what a properly Christian appreciation of and relationship with Islam might look like. For this we will read the essay “A Muslim to Muslims: Reflections after September 11” by Vincent Cornell from Dissent from the Homeland p 83-95. This reading can be found through the link http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/vol101/issue2/

Week 6: The Voice of the Other – part 2 Here we will look at a specifically Jewish perspective on 9/11 as explored in Rabbi Peter Ochs’ essay “September 11 and the Children of Israel” from Dissent from the Homeland p 137-149. This reading can be found through the link http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/vol101/issue2/ We will also look at Jewish/Christian relations and focus on Romans 9-11 as the epicenter of our conversation.

Week 7: “Those people who did this will hear all of you soon” Here we will look at the concept of a just war from a Christian perspective, we will discuss the gospel as well as various voices from Church history in relation to the question. We will be reading Rowan Williams essay “End of War” from Dissent from the Homeland p 25-37. This reading can be found through the link http://saq.dukejournals.org/content/vol101/issue2/
We will also be emailed the text wherein Augustine establishes the concept of Just War that will shape Christian thinking about War and Peace from then on. We will examine this text in light of the earlier texts by Tertullian and Athenagoras and ask, which of these positions is best supported by the Gospels? Are the political factors or developments within the Church that would lead to the development of a position such as Augustine’s? Do we face challenges today in differentiating between what we are called to do by the Gospels and what we are called to do by our state or even our “Brute Nature” to use a phrase of Gregory of Nyssa’s?


Week 8: What are we to do as Christians? Here we will ask, how are we to be, as Christians, in a world scarred by 9/11. How are we to live up to our role as Christians at this time, in this context. Our discussions will be in dialogue with Michael Baxter’s essay “Dispelling the “we” fallacy in the Body of Christ: The task of Catholics in a Time of War” from Dissent from the Homeland p 107-121 As well as looking at Christian story of reconciliation as manifest in the Gospels, the call to radical solidarity with the suffering in and as our participation in God’s Triune life..