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Keynote speech at La Trobe University Metamodernism Conference Feb 2023 The academic study of Religion deals in the weird: anomalous events, liminal states, mystical realizations, and the felt, affective reactions of humans to such... more
Keynote speech at La Trobe University Metamodernism Conference Feb 2023

The academic study of Religion deals in the weird: anomalous events, liminal states, mystical realizations, and the felt, affective reactions of humans to such phenomena. It also tracks the cross-pollination of belief into cultural currency, as well as secular cultural products’ instantiation of ontological claims. Put differently, if religion is the active attempts to grapple with the question of what it is to be human, metamodernism, as an interpolative force (or episteme), helps describe shifts in ontological frameworks evidenced by their increased visibility in popular culture. Broad interest in and even an odd comfort with the weird – in  particular, with portrayals of “ordinary people” having non-ordinary experiences – is more visible than ever in popular culture. The Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR) identity as a Western contemporary idiom is an example of the creation of curated space for detraditionalized spiritualities, impacted by (and, I will argue, with significant impact upon) the metamodern turn. Considering instances of the weird becoming comfortable or even normative, I will discuss how metamodern theory can be applied in three ways:
1) as an instrument of periodization that historically contextualizes this post-postmodern “turn” via contemporary secular-spiritual movements such as the SBNR, itself greatly influenced by mystical traditions and certain concepts from Asian religious philosophies;
2) as a way of accounting for the specific flavor of aesthetic content that comes via meetings of popular culture with contemporary mysticisms;
3) as a means of distinguishing how post-postmodern reflexivities and oscillative sensibilities help us make sense of the presence of the liminal identity narratives that have become common in the mediatized 21st century.
Research Interests:
What happens to the mind when we experience Awe or Wonder? The phenomenon of awe/wonder is on the radars of scholars in a number of disciplines, producing numerous studies in recent years. Some equate awe/wonder directly to religious or... more
What happens to the mind when we experience Awe or Wonder?  The phenomenon of awe/wonder is on the radars of scholars in a number of disciplines, producing numerous studies in recent years. Some equate awe/wonder directly to religious or spiritual experience. Some theorize awe/wonder as a radically de-centering state, wherein the brain is opened up to new modes of awareness. In this presentation I will view experiences of awe/wonder as secular means of engaging the numinous. 
First situating it in foundational works, such as Rudolph Otto's The Idea of the Holy, in which we see the phrase, mysterium tremendum et fascinates developed, I will then trace some of the current research from neuroscience, cognitive science, comparative work  and psychological studies. We will draw from participants' personal experiences of awe and wonder to enrich the discussion.
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What does it mean to be "spiritual-but-not-religious"? What drives increasing numbers of individuals to align with this ambiguous moniker? Exploring the choice away from religion and toward something called spirituality helps us... more
What does it mean to be "spiritual-but-not-religious"? What drives increasing numbers of individuals to align with this ambiguous moniker? Exploring the choice away from religion and toward something called spirituality helps us understand both the history and the current usages of both of those terms. This lecture will consider what exactly makes "SBNR" a cultural response unique to this time period, as differentiated, for example, from its predecessor, the New Age. We will also explore the potential shadow side of detraditionalization – or unrootedness in a particular tradition – that can accompany the SBNRs' so-called "salad-bar spirituality."
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Program book abstract: Join AAR’s first-ever roundtable discussion featuring scholars shaping the burgeoning development of metamodernism—a theoretical category with cross-cultural relevance. Metamodern theory seeks to account for... more
Program book abstract: Join AAR’s first-ever roundtable discussion featuring scholars shaping the burgeoning development of metamodernism—a theoretical category with cross-cultural relevance. Metamodern theory seeks to account for post-postmodern cultural shifts at the turn of the millennium and to reflect and perform discursive negotiations between modern and postmodern frameworks. Its initial theorizations originate chiefly from literary, art and cultural studies. These panelists’ works are extending its scope to apply it cross-/inter-disciplinarily as a conceptual tool for understanding such wide-ranging phenomena as the rise of the Spiritual but Not Religious; a remodeling of “utopias” by Generations Y and Z; the informed naiveté present in mythological themes in contemporary literature, ontological possibilities of diasporic visual culture, and more. We also propose meta-theoretical interventions to disrupt postmodern premises that still guide academic practice. Our panelists’ diverse applications draw from literary and popular culture studies, art history, critical theory, theology and Asian religions, and represent cutting edge scholarship employing this comparative, methodological innovation.
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Research Interests:
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Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the United States examines the intersection of religion and monstrosity in a variety of different time periods in the hopes of addressing two gaps in scholarship... more
Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the United States examines the intersection of religion and monstrosity in a variety of different time periods in the hopes of addressing two gaps in scholarship within the field of monster studies. The first part of this book—running from the medieval to the Early Modern period—focuses upon the view of the monster through non-majority voices and accounts from those who were themselves branded as monsters. Overlapping partially with the Early Modern and proceeding to the present day, the contributions of the second part of this book attempt to problematize the dichotomy of secular/religious through a close look at the monsters this period has wrought.
Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s 2012 film, The Cabin in the Woods, has been touted for its smart treatment of cliches and tropes commonly found within the horror and paranormal genres. Amidst the film’s purposeful braiding of playful,... more
Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s 2012 film, The Cabin in the Woods, has been touted for its smart treatment of cliches and tropes commonly found within the horror and paranormal genres. Amidst the film’s purposeful braiding of playful, ironic referentialities with its extreme gore and scare-factor, the filmmakers also manage to supply a built-in though often-missed strand of hopeful humanism, which ultimately lends to the creation of a cultural product that is neither modern, postmodern nor anti-postmodern but is, finally, something other than the sum of its parts. In this chapter, the authors argue that metamodernism, a recently theorized possible successor to postmodernism, provides a lens through which to distinguish Cabin from strictly intertextual films such as Scream and Scary Movie.  This analysis will discuss several elements of the film that exemplify metamodern sensibilities and consider the genre-transforming potential of Cabin’s championing of the right to one’s own narrative in the face of an unremittingly dire situation.
The monster as a literary metaphor, it has commonly been observed, may represent individual or social anxiety, the resistance to change, and the threat of transformation—as in the threat of physically or psychologically becoming the... more
The monster as a literary metaphor, it has commonly been observed, may represent individual or social anxiety, the resistance to change, and the threat of transformation—as in the threat of physically or psychologically becoming the monstrous Other. Such transformation is seen as threatening in contexts when stability is desired. However, the monster is also deployed occurs in situations in which instability and transformation may be valenced as spiritually productive, such as is found in mystical encounters. In currents of today’s popular culture, mystical activity and spiritual realization, far from being considered rarified states available only to ascetics, are increasingly portrayed as available to ordinary individuals. In this essay, I track the monstrous figure in American popular spiritualities as an intertextual creation contributing to a contemporary rescripting of notions of spiritual transformation. I utilize critical theory of metamodernism to unpack a new manner in which today’s monsters provide fruitful instabilities necessary for both personal as well as social transformations.

One exemplar of such a metamodern monstrous is found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the popular American television show that ran from 1997-2003 and enjoys a continued cult following. Recognized as one of the first television efforts to focus on sacred/religious/spiritual content in a decidedly secular setting, Buffy has been the subject of numerous theoretical treatments, a few of which have applied monster theory (Santana and Erickson 2008, 2016; Schofield Clark 2005). However, none has yet situated the show, nor the monstrous Other in general, within a metamodern epistemic shift. I connect these pieces to suggest a means of understanding the increasing comfort with monsters’ multivalence—as enemy, lover, friend, provider of Gnostic wisdom, and productive destabilizer.
In her “Toward a Metamodern Reading of Spiritual but Not Religious Mysticisms,” Linda C. Ceriello frames being SBNR as evidencing a new means of engaging with mysticisms through what has been described as a metamodern epistemic shift. By... more
In her “Toward a Metamodern Reading of Spiritual but Not Religious Mysticisms,” Linda C. Ceriello frames being SBNR as evidencing a new means of engaging with mysticisms through what has been described as a metamodern epistemic shift. By way of examining how mystical material “performs” in a post-postmodern, secular milieu, she investigates the potential utility of the theoretical category of metamodernism that some are putting forth as a successor to postmodernism. She asks how this new category might help us to both account for shifting levels of normativity around mysticism in contemporary culture, and to expose a new dimension of the choice to identify as SBNR.  She then posits the significance of the relationship between the two as a reflexive construction of spaces of liminality analogous to the mystical encounter itself, which mirror contemporary individuals’ felt experiences: of being in-between, of being neither this nor that, and a sense of being both/and —secular and spiritual. Theorizing of a metamodern sensibility is further applied in addressing the significant roles that pop culture and social media have played as the New Age gave way to the SBNR. This move, she suggests, has paved the way for a cultural narrative of a different sort--one that may offer not only a new angle on universalist (modern) and constructivist (postmodern) cultural readings, but a kind of reconciliation of the two that is consequently uniquely reflective of, and responsive to, contemporary secular-spiritualities. Such an analysis aptly culminates in a reconsideration of the oft-cited (and usually pejorative) critique of the social mission and “community” (if any) inherent in being SBNR.
Very few full-length texts have been written on the burgeoning concept-theory of metamodernism. Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect and Depth after Postmodernism by van den Akker, Gibbons and Vermeulen is, to date, the only scholarly,... more
Very few full-length texts have been written on the burgeoning concept-theory of metamodernism. Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect and Depth after Postmodernism by van den Akker, Gibbons and Vermeulen is, to date, the only scholarly, multi-authored, ed- ited volume on the topic. Their volume develops the conception of metamodernism introduced in a 2010 exploratory essay (by Vermeulen and van den Akker) titled “Notes on Metamodernism.” In the mid-2000s, at a time of general, cross-disciplinary agree- ment that “postmodern vernacular has increasingly proven inapt and inept in coming to terms with our changed social sit- uation” (van den Akker et al. 2017, 2), these scholars joined a spirited discussion adjacent to others floating new terms such as digimodernism (Alan Kirby 2006), altermodernism (Nicholas Bourriaud 2009), cosmodernism (Christian Moraru 2011) and performatism (Raoul Eshelman 2000) as to what ought to be the term and form/concept to follow postmodernism. In a sense, all of these alternatives echo Fredric Jameson’s call from 1988 ad- dressing the need for a new discourse to reflect the postmod- ern historical moment, this time by refreshing it for today’s post-postmodern moment: if history did not, in fact, “end” with Fukuyama’s famous pronouncement, then what did it do? If it has instead “bent”—a term Vermeulen and van den Akker bor- row from John Arquilla—what is the tone of this bend, and in what ways has it, as they write, “come to define contemporary cultural production and political discourse”? (2). Of these bids to theorize a post-postmodern, it is van den Akker and Vermeulen, later joined by Gibbons, whose writings most decisively introduce a paradigm for the humanities writ large, one that has been taken as a scaffold by scholars in nu- merous fields who have contributed to developing metamodern theory since. What follows is an evaluation of its usefulness as such, including a brief review of their volume to highlight its applicability for the humanities and especially for the study of religion. Shareable link: C. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/Q6TETNCMUIWNFVSH7XEF?target=10.1111/rsr.16195
ABSTRACT The literature on ‘mountain mysticism’ includes a wide array of interpretations: Reductively, mystical states experienced on mountains may be viewed as neurological or psychological epiphenomena. Anthropomorphised as mystical... more
ABSTRACT The literature on ‘mountain mysticism’ includes a wide array of interpretations: Reductively, mystical states experienced on mountains may be viewed as neurological or psychological epiphenomena. Anthropomorphised as mystical agents themselves, the mountain is seen as capable of engendering non-ordinary awareness. This article makes space for interpretations falling outside of or combining such constructivist and universalised interpretations by first examining what ontological interpolations may be available after ‘the peak has been reached.’ I track the mystic’s descent ‘back’ to ordinary consciousness as a pivotal determinative moment in the narrative construction of mystical noesis. I consider three examples of 19th and 20th century nature mysticisms (naturalist John Muir, Vedantic sage Ramana Maharshi, journalist Rob Schultheis) to illustrate my assertion that it is the mystic’s grappling with the paradox inherent in the ontological trauma of descent which performs the pivotal negotiation between the collapsed boundaries of subject/object or self/Other that characterizes mystical experience. I suggest further that we look to this narrative grappling as inevitably determining the content of the experience of noesis itself. Rather than reasserting a radical constructivism, I point more specifically to ‘descent’ as one juncture in which a remarkable ontological agency directly engages with the mystic’s moment of self-construal.
Gnosticism and Tantra are groupings of esoteric traditions that each posed challenges to the philosophical or theological doctrines of the religious systems coeval to them by introducing beliefs and practices that were in shocking... more
Gnosticism and Tantra are groupings of esoteric traditions that each posed challenges to the philosophical or theological doctrines of the religious systems coeval to them by introducing beliefs and practices that were in shocking contrast to existing purity codes. In both Gnostic and Tantric traditions, female figures play two crucial roles in fostering religious practitioner’s spiritual realization or gnosis : Figures such as the Gnostic Sophia and the Goddess or ḍākinī in Tantra both define a stable and fixed reality for the practitioner to transcend, and facilitate the symbolic fracturing of that reality. Her most surprisingly transgressive role, however, may be when she acts as an overarching ontological principle. In some texts she is given the role of generating, even embodying, speech itself.  With reflection on how the discourses of orthodoxy and heresy and gender shape and define the identities of both Gnosticism and Tantra, I consider how the female—both the feminine-gend...
The SBNR is viewed as evidencing a new means of engaging with mysticisms through what has been described as a metamodern epistemic shift. By way of examining how mystical material “performs” in a post-postmodern, secular milieu, I... more
The SBNR is viewed as evidencing a new means of engaging with mysticisms through what has been described as a metamodern epistemic shift. By way of examining how mystical material “performs” in a post-postmodern, secular milieu, I investigate the potential utility of the theoretical category of metamodernism that some are putting forth as a successor to postmodernism. I will ask how this new category might help us in two broad ways: 1) to account for shifting levels of normativity around mysticism in contemporary culture; and 2) to expose a new dimension of the choice to identify as “SBNR.” This choice will be explored specifically as a reflexive means of constructing spaces of liminality analogous to the mystical encounter itself, which mirror contemporary individuals’ felt experiences: of being in-between, of being neither this nor that, and, most germane for my argument here—a sense of being both/and —secular and spiritual. Theorizing of a metamodern sensibility will also be applied in addressing the significant roles that pop culture and media have played as the New Age gave way to the SBNR. This move paved the way for a cultural narrative of a different sort--one that may offer not only the possibility of a reconciliation of universalist (modern) and constructivist (postmodern) cultural readings, but the creation of something consequently uniquely responsive to contemporary secular-spiritualities.
Gnosticism and Tantra are groupings of esoteric traditions that each posed challenges to the philosophical or theological doctrines of the religious systems coeval to them by introducing beliefs and practices that were in shocking... more
Gnosticism and Tantra are groupings of esoteric traditions that each posed challenges to the philosophical or theological doctrines of the religious systems coeval to them by introducing beliefs and practices that were in shocking contrast to existing purity codes. In both Gnostic and Tantric traditions, female figures can be seen as performing opposing kinds of symbolic work, when they both define a stable and fixed reality for the normative male to transcend, and facilitate the symbolic fracturing of that reality, an act key to enabling spiritual realization or “gnosis” for the male practitioner.
This paper forges a comparison using select female-gendered Gnostic and Tantric figures or principles, with reflection on how the discourses of orthodoxy and heresy shape and define the identities of these groups. I consider how the female principle—both the feminine-gendered symbolic, and also, in some instances, the human woman acting as a metaphor for the Divine—is encoded in these traditions with a purposive ambiguity. Gender theory frames this analysis, as I treat the derivation of religious symbol systems as a gendered act.
In Gnosticism, Sophia and the Barbelo or First Thought are discussed. Sophia’s condition--her will and her generative power-- has been called by Buckley one of “simultaneous deficiency and an excess of power” (132). Throughout the Gnostic myths, her presence is a liminal one: neither here nor there, she exists to delineate a newly formed otherness or ambiguity.
In South Asian Tantra, the female symbolizes and plays the role of the Goddess, in the form of a yogini, a being also between two realms. Close to the human world and divine (similar to the figure of the Sophia), the yogini’s liminality is evoked.
In a general sense, in Gnosticism and Tantra, females and their bodies seem to symbolically embody a performative multivalence: they are by turns the fullness of creation, the most pure and most sought, and the most impure, problematic and othered. Biernacki argues that this very multiplicity of shifting forms does profound work, and can “...explode[ ] the binary logic that founds the idea of an ‘other.’”(126-7).” When the goddess speaks in The Brhannila Tantra, Biernacki writes, hers are “not just words, they are the bodying of sound into female forms. This feminine anthropomorphized speech fuses the notion of sign and thing, giving us a word that is...the presence of being, the goddesses themselves” (119).
To show how the female in select Gnostic texts also performs this engagement of speech-as-gnosis, I discuss Mary as a character in the narrative of the Pistis Sophia who can be seen as the human counterpart to the Sophia. Speech takes on an ontological quality in this text as Mary alone among the disciples succeeds in repeating back the Savior’s teachings, and ultimately, she transforms: “When Mary had finished saying these words...she had become pure spirit entirely” (1896, 199). Mary’s unique acumen will also be explored as potentially noteworthy in terms of the status and capabilities attributed to women by the Gnostics.


Abstract Citations:

Anon. 1896. Pistis Sophia. New York: Theosophical Publishing Society.

Biernacki, Lorillai. 2007. Renowned Goddess of Desire. Oxford: Oxford University Pr.

Buckley, Jorunn. 1986. Female Fault and Fulfillment in Gnosticism. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Pr.
Research Interests:
The literature on ‘mountain mysticism’ includes a wide array of interpretations: Reductively, mystical states experienced on mountains may be viewed as neuro- logical or psychological epiphenomena. Anthropomorphised as mystical agents... more
The literature on ‘mountain mysticism’ includes a wide array of interpretations: Reductively, mystical states experienced on mountains may be viewed as neuro- logical or psychological epiphenomena. Anthropomorphised as mystical agents themselves, the mountain is seen as capable of engendering non-ordinary aware- ness. This article makes space for interpretations falling outside of or combining such constructivist and universalised interpretations by first examining what ontological interpolations may be available after ‘the peak has been reached.’ I track the mystic’s descent ‘back’ to ordinary consciousness as a pivotal determi- native moment in the narrative construction of mystical noesis. I consider three examples of 19th and 20th century nature mysticisms (naturalist John Muir, Vedantic sage Ramana Maharshi, journalist Rob Schultheis) to illustrate my asser- tion that it is the mystic’s grappling with the paradox inherent in the ontological trauma of descent which performs the pivotal negotiation between the collapsed boundaries of subject/object or self/Other that characterizes mystical experience. I suggest further that we look to this narrative grappling as inevitably determining the content of the experience of noesis itself. Rather than reasserting a radical constructivism, I point more specifically to ‘descent’ as one juncture in which a remarkable ontological agency directly engages with the mystic’s moment of self- construal.
Very few full-length texts have been written on the burgeoning concept-theory of metamodernism. Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect and Depth after Postmodernism by van den Akker, Gibbons and Vermeulen is, to date, the only scholarly,... more
Very few full-length texts have been written on the burgeoning
concept-theory of metamodernism. Metamodernism: Historicity,
Affect and Depth after Postmodernism by van den Akker, Gibbons
and Vermeulen is, to date, the only scholarly, multi-authored, ed-
ited volume on the topic. Their volume develops the conception
of metamodernism introduced in a 2010 exploratory essay (by
Vermeulen and van den Akker) titled “Notes on Metamodernism.”
In the mid-2000s, at a time of general, cross-disciplinary agree-
ment that “postmodern vernacular has increasingly proven
inapt and inept in coming to terms with our changed social sit-
uation” (van den Akker et al. 2017, 2), these scholars joined a
spirited discussion adjacent to others floating new terms such
as digimodernism (Alan Kirby 2006), altermodernism (Nicholas
Bourriaud 2009), cosmodernism (Christian Moraru 2011) and
performatism (Raoul Eshelman 2000) as to what ought to be the
term and form/concept to follow postmodernism. In a sense, all
of these alternatives echo Fredric Jameson’s call from 1988 ad-
dressing the need for a new discourse to reflect the postmod-
ern historical moment, this time by refreshing it for today’s
post-postmodern moment: if history did not, in fact, “end” with
Fukuyama’s famous pronouncement, then what did it do? If it
has instead “bent”—a term Vermeulen and van den Akker bor-
row from John Arquilla—what is the tone of this bend, and in
what ways has it, as they write, “come to define contemporary
cultural production and political discourse”? (2).
Of these bids to theorize a post-postmodern, it is van den
Akker and Vermeulen, later joined by Gibbons, whose writings
most decisively introduce a paradigm for the humanities writ
large, one that has been taken as a scaffold by scholars in nu-
merous fields who have contributed to developing metamodern
theory since. What follows is an evaluation of its usefulness as
such, including a brief review of their volume to highlight its applicability for the humanities and especially for the study of
religion.

Shareable link: C. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/Q6TETNCMUIWNFVSH7XEF?target=10.1111/rsr.16195