Panel: MATERIAL REALITIES OF RACE, CLASS, GENDER AND RELIGION. QUESTIONING THE PRODUCTION OF INEQUALITY AND INJUSTICE



50_2.4 - ECONOMIES OF THE SPIRIT: MATERIAL PNEUMATOLOGY AND THE END OF HISTORY

AUTHORS:
Larner L. (University of Roehampton ~ London ~ United Kingdom)
Text:
Western philosophies and theologies have often been critiqued for engendering a dualism between the spiritual and the material. In this paper I will explore an alternative approach, which considers Christian pneumatology alongside the very material impacts of late capitalism. Drawing from my empirical research among Anglican practitioners of broad-based community organising, I will interweave the metaphysical and the material to demonstrate that theologies of the Spirit have a profound impact upon Christian practice, and vice-versa. Critiquing approaches to pneumatology and Christian mission which resemble Hegel's colonial Geist and Max Weber's 'spirit of capitalism,' I will argue for a liberative notion of the Spirit's work of becoming in solidarity. This approach brings the reflections of my research participants into conversation with Marxist theory, sociological frameworks and liberation theologies. Rejecting notions of late capitalism as 'The End of History', I will explore possibilities for an alternative future born of the Spirit of Life.