My modest contribution to W. H. C. Frend's idea of a "propaganda war" at the turn of the fourth century CE gets a write-up in The Independent.
Author: David Lloyd Dusenbury
David Lloyd Dusenbury is a philosopher, historian of ideas, Times Literary Supplement contributor and senior fellow at Budapest's Danube Institute. The author of I Judge No One and The Innocence of Pontius Pilate (published by Hurst and Oxford University Press), he is also Chair for Jewish-Christian Relations at the University of Antwerp.
“As a matter of fact I don’t know”: Bataille on Bataille
"As a matter of fact I don't know what the being is that I am, nor do I know what the world is and I would not be able to produce another one by any means." - Georges Bataille, Theory of Religion, ch. 2
Virtual book launch: McGill University’s Newman Centre & School of Religious Studies
Delighted to hear that McGill University's Newman Centre and School of Religious Studies will host a virtual book launch for The Innocence of Pontius Pilate on 1 May. Anyone can dial in. To pose questions & register (free of charge), visit this page.
Book in print: “The Innocence of Pontius Pilate” (London, April 2021)
The Spectator: “a model of intelligent, persuasive scholarship”
Nick Spencer reviews my newest book in the world's oldest magazine: "The Innocence of Pontius Pilate is a model of intelligent, accessible and persuasive scholarship." Read more at The Spectator.
Oxford, New York: “The Innocence of Pontius Pilate”
It's heartening to see the work of a half-decade announced by Oxford in New York. Copies will ship in the United States on 1 July.
“My book”
"M. Pascal used to say of those authors who always refer to their works as, 'My book', that they sound like solid citizens with a place of their own, always talking about 'My house'. They would do better, this excellent man added, to say, 'Our book', considering that there is usually more of other people's… Continue reading “My book”
“In this world-age there is no perfect love”
en icest siecle nen at parfite amour la vide est fraile, n'i at durable onour "In this world-age there is no perfect love Life is frail, there is no lasting honour" Chanson d'Alexis (Song of Saint Alexius), 11th century, Old French - courtesy of Erich Auerbach, Mimesis, ch. 5.
A motto: S. Kierkegaard
A motto: "Like one who rows a boat, I turn my back toward the goal." - S. Kierkegaard, "In Order to Philosophize, One Must have Doubted", 1844 Fotografi efter blyantstegning udført ca. 1840 af N. C. Kierkegaard
“The philosophical commandment” (al-waṣiyya al-falsafiyya)
An 11th-century Syrian Christian, Abdallah ibn al-Fadl, called Jesus' injunction to love others as we love ourselves "the philosophical commandment” (al-waṣiyya al-falsafiyya). Roughly 800 years later, Immanuel Kant said the same. And I am honoured to be writing a political life of Jesus this year, for C. Hurst in London. Lodewijk Schelfhout, Christus aan het… Continue reading “The philosophical commandment” (al-waṣiyya al-falsafiyya)
D. L. Dusenbury 