Being. Nothing. Loving: The Metaphysics of the Passion

It’s hard to believe but my second book Redeeming Flesh: The Way of the Cross with Zombie Jesus is 10 years old this year. While this has now been overshadowed by the release of my most current book A Theological Engagement with Pornography, I thought this milestone deserved its own special post.

Redeeming Flesh was a paschal-themed piece of an experimental mix of cultural critique and spiritual reading. The paschal theme was the function of being kindly invited to facilitate the Holy Week retreat at Holy Spirit Seminary in Brisbane. I was incredibly grateful for the invitation by the seminary’s spiritual director, Fr Paul Chandler, to facilitate that retreat.

This year, almost a dozen years after that retreat, I pleased to say that I have been invited to facilitate my second retreat at Holy Spirit Seminary. The working title of this year’s retreat will be "Being. Nothing. Loving: The Metaphysics of the Passion”.

This retreat will draw on my engagement with the thought of Ferdinand Ulrich. While previous bits of writing and research have focused on the theme of identity, I thought of focusing Ulrich’s thought, especially his themes of “Being is Nothing” and “Transnihilation” on Christ’s Passion, and suggest that the Passion, whose foundation is Christ’s death and resurrection, also constitutes a metaphysical reality that lays bare the reality of the world and our experiences within it, and thus puts into effect Christ’s saying that he will lay bare the “things hidden since the foundation of the world” (Mt 13:35). In many respects, I will suggest Ulrich has many resonances with Rene Girard, insofar as both suggest that Christ does not simply enter into the world, but constitutes a new mode by which the world can hold together. This has profound effects not only in relation to the world in some vague abstract sense, but in a visceral, personal and experiential sense as well.

I do not have plans to convert this into a publication just yet, as a number of writing projects are currently in the pipeline, but who knows? For now, I am looking forward to joining the seminary community for this retreat. And with any luck, I hope this will be the first of many steps in my transition towards being more than just being “the Zombie Jesus book guy”.

Find a more comprehensive list of Matthew’s research and writing here.