Johannes Hoff

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Johannes Hoff

Johannes Hoff (* 1962 in Trier ) is a German - English Roman Catholic theologian , philosopher and university professor.

Career

Hoff received his doctorate from the University of Tübingen and completed his habilitation there in 2006. He is currently Senior Research Associate at the Van Hügel Institute at the University of Cambridge (UK) and Honorary Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham . Until 2018 he was Professor of Philosophical Theology at Heythrop College (University of London). He previously taught at St. David's College at the University of Wales and at the University of Tübingen .

His research builds on the performative turn of the phenomenologically oriented, poststructuralist tradition and the new realism of post-analytical representatives of Anglophone philosophy and theology. Hoff interprets the political and cultural loss of orientation in the 21st century as a symptom of a spiritual crisis, the prehistory of which he traces back through the technological and artistic revolutions of the Renaissance to the scholasticism of the late Middle Ages. His arguments expand on the genealogical hermeneutics of Michel Foucault , Michel de Certeau , Henri de Lubac , John Milbank and Charles Taylor . The aim of his work is to re-establish the unity of spiritual practice, science and culture for the present, which in particular shaped the thinking of philosophical-theological representatives of the Albertist tradition of the Middle Ages (e.g. Thomas von Aquin , Meister Eckhart and Nikolaus von Kues ).

In line with this program, Hoff argues in his most recent publications that we need to develop a “post-digital concept of reason” that is based on the spiritual and virtuous cultivation of our intuitive intelligence and that is different from our “natural desire for the unity of truth, good and Beautiful ”. The digital technologies of our time are more than just tools. They led a magical life of their own. According to Hoff, it is therefore essential to cultivate “self-technologies” that guide us to differentiate between “good and bad magic”: objects and artifacts that promote a good life (in the sense of the classic concept of eudaimonia ) and artifacts that entangle us in forms of superstition and addiction . In the course of the confessionalization of religions after the Reformation , we forgot this gift, according to Hoff. The modern belief that we are “autonomous subjects” has obscured the fact that our lives have been increasingly dominated by bureaucratic surveillance and control strategies. According to Hoff, the digitization of these strategies shows their true character: the “logic of disenchantment” of the Enlightenment tradition has turned into a kind of “evil magic” that can only be overcome through rationally disciplined, sacramental re-enchantment. Since we would have stopped living in a "disenchanted" world, we would have to rediscover the old tradition of discerning spirits . “Our smartphones have a 'magical quality of their own' - be it that they grant us a life that we cherish, or that they push us into a life that we abhor. This challenge requires that we rediscover our gift of distinguishing between idolatric attachments and the wise use of 'magical objects' that is consistent with our natural desire to transform our lives for the better. "

In this context, Hoff's manifesto “Against Transhumanism” published in the NZZ on June 19, 2017 , together with Georg Franck , Sarah Spiekermann and other researchers from computer ethics, media philosophy and psychology, can be found.

Hoff's earliest publications were based on the philosophies of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault ( Spirituality and Loss of Language , 1999) and the Renaissance philosophy of Nikolaus von Kues ( Contingency, Touch, Transgression , 2007). These two strands of his research came together in his English-language book The Analogical Turn: Rethinking Modernity with Nicholas of Cusa (2013), which was publicly discussed in an online symposium of the Syndicate Network in 2016. This monograph has contributed significantly to its establishment in the context of recent discussions about the future of Christian thought and has sparked a cross-denominational research interest in the importance of the Cusan for post-denominational theology in the English-speaking world.

In the context of this research work are also Hoff's publications on the phenomenon of performativity in Augustine , Dante , in the Renaissance , Romanticism and modern avant-garde art, as well as his collaboration with leading representatives of contemporary art such as Christoph Schlingensief . In accordance with the above spiritual tradition, Hoff rejects the modern “myth of the given” in these writings and argues that truth always has the character of a “ truth event ”. As something that can never be taken for granted, truth can only ever be actualized in the process of speaking and acting.

Hoff is married to the German-Austrian business IT specialist Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff .

Publications (selection)

  • The Analogical Turn. Re-thinking Modernity with Nicholas of Cusa. Series 'Interventions'. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids 2013
  • Contingency, touch, transgression. On the philosophical propaedeutics of Christian mysticism according to Nikolaus von Kues Alber: Freiburg / Br. 2007 (Contingency, Tangency, Transgression. A Philosophical Propaedeutics of Christian Mysticism subsequent to Nicholas of Cusa) ( Full Text Online)
  • Spirituality and Loss of Language. Theology after Foucault and Derrida Paderborn, Munich, Zurich: Schöningh 1999 (Spirituality and the Loss of Language. Theology after Foucault and Derrida) ( Full Text Online ).

Web links

Commons : Johannes Hoff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Professor Johannes Hoff - Von Hügel Institute. Retrieved December 23, 2019 .
  2. ^ Heythrop - Prof Johannes Hoff. Retrieved December 23, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Johannes Hoff: Spirituality and loss of language. Theology according to Foucault and Derrida . Schöningh, Paderborn 1999.
  4. ↑ Johannes Hoff: Contingency, Touch, Transgression. On the philosophical propaedeutics of Christian mysticism according to Nikolaus von Kues . Alber, Freiburg 2007, p. 11-27 .
  5. ↑ Johannes Hoff: Liturgical Turn: God's speech in a post-digital world . In: Klaus Viertbauer; Klaus Schmidinger (Ed.): Thinking Faith. On the philosophical penetration of the Gottrede in the 21st century . WBG, Darmstadt 2016, p. 61-81, 61-66 .
  6. ↑ John Hoff: The Analogical turn. Responses to John Betz, Michael E. Moore, Matthew Moser, and Daniel O'Connell. Virtual Symposium on "The Analogical Turn" in the "Syndicate The-ology" from the 27th of April to the 11th of May 2015 . In: https://syndicate.network/symposia/theology/the-analogical-turn/ . S. 51-59 .
  7. ↑ Johannes Hoff: Mystagogical Approaches to the Church as the Body of Christ. Certeau's tactical re-reading of the Corpus Mysticum and the legacy of Henri de Lubac . In: Christian Bauer; Marco Sorace (Ed.): Gott, elsewhere? Theology in conversation with Michel de Certeau . Grünewald, Mainz 2019, p. 249-286 .
  8. ^ Johannes Hoff: Review-Essay: Beyond the Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People by John Milbank . In: Modern Theology . 2016, p. 679-683 .
  9. ↑ Johannes Hoff: Nicholas of Cusa: A Pre-modern Post-modern reader of Shakespeare . In: Peter Hampson; Zoe Lehmann Infeld (Ed.): Theology and Literature in Post-modernity . T&T Clark, London 2015, p. 115-137, 115-121 .
  10. ↑ Johannes Hoff: Liturgical Turn: God's speech in a post-digital world . In: Viertbauer, Klaus; Schmidinger, Klaus (ed.): Thinking about faith. On the philosophical penetration of the Gottrede in the 21st century . WBG, Darmstadt 2016, p. 61-81 .
  11. ↑ Johannes Hoff: The Return to Reality: Friendship, Politics and Spirituality in a Post-Factual Age . In: International Catholic Journal Communio . tape 46 , no. 3 , p. 299-312 .
  12. ^ Johannes Hoff: The Eclipse of Sacramental Realism in the Age of Reform. Re-thinking Luther's Gutenberg Galaxy in a Post-Digital Age. Ed .: New Blackfriars. 2018.
  13. ↑ "Our smartphones have a 'magic life' of their own - be it that they afford a life that we appreciate, or that they nudge us into a life that we abhor. This challenge requires us to recover our ability to distinguish between idolatrous attachments and the prudent use of 'magic objects' that is consistent with our natural desire to transform our life for the better. " The Eclipse of Sacramental Realism in the Age of Reform. Re-thinking Luther's Gutenberg Galaxy in a Post-Digital Age. In: New Blackfriars (2018), 248.
  14. ↑ Guest Commentary: Against Transhumanism. Accessed in 2017 .
  15. ↑ The Analogical Turn by John Hoff. Retrieved January 3, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Johannes Hoff: The Saint Augustine. About the invention of Western Christianity in Africa . In: THE TIME . No. 53 , 2009 ( zeit.de ).
  17. ↑ Johannes Hoff: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory. Dante's Commedia and the forgotten truth of apocalyptic dream worlds . In: Mara Ambrožič, Simon Njami (eds.): The Divine Comedy - Heaven, Hell, Purgatory from the perspective of contemporary African artists . Kerber, Bielefeld 2014, p. 68-81 .
  18. ↑ Johannes Hoff: The self-retiring staging of speeches and silence. On the mystagogical rhetoric of Nikolaus von Kues . In: Holt Meyer; Dirk Uffelmann (Ed.): Religion and Rhetoric. Developments and paradoxes of their inevitable alliance, religious studies today . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, p. 222-236 .
  19. ↑ John Hoff: The Analogical turn. Re-thinking Modernity with Nicholas of Cusa . Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 2013, pp. 125-133 .
  20. ^ Johannes Hoff: Citizens, Artists, Exorcists. Science, art and cult in the footsteps of Hugo Ball . In: Culture & Ghosts . No. 13 , 2012, p. 33-62 .
  21. ↑ Johannes Hoff: Life in fullness. Schlingensief's deconstruction of (post) modernism . In: Susanne Gaensheimer (Ed.): German Pavilion 2011. 54th International Art Exhibition La Biennale Di Venezia . Kiwi, Venice 2011, p. 213-223 .
  22. ^ Sarah Spiekermann: Foreword to "Digital Ethics". P. 10 , accessed on February 9, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Hoff, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-English Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH trier