Prof. dr. W. Stoker

Onderzoek

The current research (2008-2012) concerns transcendence in (post)modern painting and theology: four positions in the question into transcendence. This project runs parallel to the project Shifting Transcendence: Art and Religion since World War II.

Religion is currently in a flux of resurgence and transformation in the West after many decades of demise and neglect in the wake of secularization. The aim of this project is to research the nature of this resurgence and transformation of religion by investigating the way(s) in which a specific, crucial religious notion, namely that of “transcendence,” has manifested itself in the development of aesthetic culture in the West over the decades since World War II. Without doubt, religion (and spirituality in general) has been an important undercurrent of contemporary art in the West, but the interpretation and analysis of its cultural significance has been lacking by and large in the theoretical analysis of art, cultural theory and aesthetics. One of the reasons for this “blind spot” – with regard to religion and spirituality – in the current state of critical theory of art and culture in the West during the last decades is the lack of research that is done from within the framework of a theological aesthetics, i.e. theoretical reflection on the meaning of the aesthetic dimension of human beings in relation to the ultimate. This project aims to rectify this state of affairs in the current state of scholarship by contributing analyses and interpretations from within the theoretical framework of theological aesthetics, taking as its cue the crucial religious concept (and its variables) of “transcendence.”

Onderwijs

Aesthetics, Hermeneutics, Theory of World View, Accounting for Faith  

Recente publicaties

Articles

• “Beauty as a Theological Concept: A Critical examination of the Aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Gerardus van der Leeuw.” In: H. Zock (ed.). At the Crossroads of Art and Religion. Louvain: Peeters, 2008. Pp. 153-71.
• “The Rothko Chapel Paintings and the Urgency of the Transcendent Experience.” International Journal of Philosophy of Religion (2008) 64, 89-102.
• “God in de (post)moderne cultuur: George Steiner over transcendentie in kunst en cultuur.” Verbum et Ecclesia 29 (2008): 475-91.
• “Kunst: Openbaarheid en Openbaring.” 2008 Tijdschrift Estheticawww.esthetica.nge.nl.
•  “God, Master of Arts.” Ars Disputandi: The Online Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2007/1 ISSN 1566-5399 (also in Hungarian in Porta Speciosa: A Journal of Theological Aesthetics 2007/16-27 and in Dutch in Tijdschrift voor Theologie 46 (2006): 377-95.

Books

• Is Faith Rational? Studies in Philosophical Theology, Louvain: Peeters, 2006 (267 pages).
• Is geloven redelijk? Een geloofsverantwoording. Zoetermeer: Meinema, 2004 (264 pages).
• W.Stoker and H.M.Vroom, Verhulde waarheid: Over het begrijpen van religieuze teksten. Zoetermeer: Meinema, 2000 (200 pages).
• Is the Quest for Meaning the Quest for God? The Religious Ascription of Meaning in Relation to the Secular Ascription of Meaning. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1996 (255 pages).
• Is vragen naar zin vragen naar God? Een godsdienstwijsgerige studie over godsdienstige zingeving in haar verhouding tot seculiere zingeving. Zoetermeer: Meinema, 1993 (311 pages).
• De christelijke godsdienst in de filosofie van de Verlichting: Een vergelijkende studie over geloofsverantwoording in het denken van Locke, de deïsten, Lessing en Kant. Assen: Royal van Gorcum, 1980 (229 pages)
  

CV

Wessel Stoker

2005- Professor of Aesthetics VU University, Amsterdam for the Faculties of Theology, Philosophy and Arts (also teaches Philosophy of Religion in the Faculty of Theology) (1.0 ft.)
1993-2005 Associate Professor Philosophy of Religion, VU University (0.5 ft.), minister in Eindhoven and Amsterdam (0.5.ft)

Guest Lectures
Lectures on Aesthetics, Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Stellenbosch 27 July-31 July, 2009.  
Lectures on Aesthetics, Institute for Christian Studies (Toronto) 30 June-11 July, 2008.
Lectures on Aesthetics and Philosophy of Religion, Theological Faculty of the University of Pretoria 1-9 July, 2007.
Lectures on Aesthetics, Faculty of Theology, Budapest, 14 and 15 December 2006.

14.3 Editorial Work
Member of the editorial boards of:
Esthetica: Tijdschrift voor kunst en filosofie
Theologisch Debat
Internationales Jahrbuch für die Tillich-Forschung