Associate Professor Duane Williams

Job Title: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Department: Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies
Extension: 0151 291 3171 .
Email: williad3@hope.ac.uk

After completing his undergraduate degree in Philosophy with Theatre Studies, Duane Williams studied for an MA in Mysticism and Religious Experience at the University of Kent where he graduated with a distinction. He then went on to complete his PhD in Theology and Religious Studies at the same institution. Duane then worked for many years as an hourly paid lecturer at the University of Kent teaching on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. His first book was called, The Linguistic Christ (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2011), and his latest book is called, Language and Being: Heidegger's Linguistics (Bloomsbury, 2017). Duane also co-edited the book, Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy (Routledge, 2017). He is a trustee of the Meister Eckhart Society and chief-editor of the international, peer-reviewed journal, Medieval Mystical Theology (Routledge: Taylor and Francis). He is a co-facilitator of, The Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion as well as series editor with his colleague, Steven Shakespeare, for the Reframing Continental Philosophy of Religion book series with Rowman and Littlefield. Duane has published articles on a range of figures and topics, including, Marcel Proust, William Blake, Martin Heidegger, Meister Eckhart, Zen Buddhism, Biblical Exegesis, Phenomenological Hermeneutics, and Apophatic Theology. Duane joined the Theology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies Department at Liverpool Hope in 2012. He teaches across all three disciplines, but most of his work in the department is focused on philosophy. The subjects he currently teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level include: epistemology, existentialism, philosophical aesthetics, meta-ethics, applied ethics, Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, apophatic theology, philosophy of religion, and phenomenological hermeneutics. Duane has organized and hosted international conferences at Liverpool Hope University, and continues to be a contributor at other academic conferences.

Academic Interests:

Areas of academic interest include: Mystical Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Indic Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, Zen Buddhism, Philosophy of Language, Hermeneutics, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Aesthetics, Poetics, and Symbolism.

Academic Qualifications:

PhD Theology and Religious Studies (University of Kent, 2006).

MA (Distinction) Mysticism and Religious Experience (University of Kent, 1999).

BA (Hons) Philosophy with Theatre Studies (University of Wolverhampton, 1995).

Professional Associations:

Chief-Editor of Medieval Mystical Theology.

Trustee of The Eckhart Society.

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Co-Facilitator of the Association for the Continental Philosophy of Religion.

Honorary Member of the Temenos Academy.

Member of the Mystical Theology Network.

Publications:

'Two Masters Negating the Negation: A Comparative Study of Zhaozhou Congshen and Meister Eckhart, Medieval Mystical Theology, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2022.

'Opposition is True Friendship: William Blake on Individuality, Plurality, and Community', Temenos Academy Review, 24, 2021.

'Eternity Glimpsed and Time Regained: Marcel Proust's Ontological Time', in Literature and Modern Time: Technological Modernity; Glimpses of Eternity; Experiments with Time (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)

'Prisons of Law and Brothels of Religion: William Blake's Christian Anarchism', in Essays in Anarchism and Religion, Vol. 2 (Stockholm University Press, 2018)

Language and Being: Heidegger's Linguistics (Bloomsbury Press, 2017)

'The Finger and the Moon: Language, Reality, and Interpretation in Zen Buddhism', in, Buddhism and Linguistics: Theory and Philosophy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)

'Eckhart's Why and Heidegger's What: Beyond Subjectivistic Thought to Groundless Ground', in, Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy (Routledge, 2017)

'Feminist Theology and Meister Eckhart's Transgendered Metaphor', in Feminist Theology, Vol. 24, No. 3, May 2016

'Meister Eckhart's Christ and Medieval Biblical Exegesis', Medieval Mystical Theology, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2015.

'The Why and What of Philosophy of Religion: Towards a New Hermeneutic Phenomenology for Pedagogical Practice, in Journal of Dharma: Religion and Rationality, Vol. 40, No. 4, Oct.-Dec. 2015, pp. 443-462

'An Apology for Language', Temenos Academy Review, 17, 2014.

'Between the Apophatic and the Cataphatic: Heidegger's Tautophatic Mystical Linguistics', in Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence (Ashgate, 2013)

The Linguistic Christ (Edwin Mellen Press, 2011). Foreword by, Dr. Mary Anne Perkins.

'Eckhart and the Varieties of Nothing', in Medieval Mystical Theology, ISSN 2046-5726, Vol. 20,  2011.

'Where a Silence is Said: The Ambiguities of Apophaticism', in Skepsi, ISSN 1758-2679, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2009.

Forthcoming Publications:

'The Eye With Which I See God Is The Same Eye With Which God Sees Me: Meister Eckhart on Divine Awareness', Medieval Mystical Theology, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2023.

'The Picture, the Frame, and the Crack: Glimpses Beyond the Age of Technology, in Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2024.

'A Monk, a Master, and a Dog: Negativity in Zen Buddhism's Mu Kōan’, in Thinking About Nothing: Negation, Philosophy, and the Mystical (Routledge, 2024).

Talks and Papers:

'The Eye With Which I See God Is The Eye With Which God Sees Me: Meister Eckhart On Divine Awareness' (The Eckhart Society Conference, Hoddesdon, 2022).

'Anthropology of Technology Symposium' (Brekstad, Norway, June 2022).

'Opposition is True Friendship: William Blake on Individuality, Plurality, and Community', (Conference on Friendship, Aloneness and Community, American College, Catholic University of Leuven, March 2019).

'Meister Eckhart on Prayer' (Creative and Progressive Prayer Series, St. Bride's Church, Liverpool, 2016)

'Accounts of Time in Martin Heidegger and Jiddu Krishnamurti' (Time on a Human Scale: Modernity and the Present in Europe, 1870-1930, Durham University, 2016)

'Meister Eckhart on Prayer' (Creative and Progressive Prayer, St. Brides Church, Liverpool, April 2016)

'The Why and What of Philosophy of Religion: Towards a New Hermeneutic Phenomenology for Pedagogical Practice' (Dharma: Interface between the Secular and Sacred Conference, Christ's University, Bangalore, India, 2015)

'The Finger and the Moon: Language, Reality and Interpretation in Zen Buddhism' (Buddhism and Linguistics Colloquium, Liverpool, 2014)

'Meister Eckhart's Christ and Medieval Biblical Exegesis' (The Eckhart Society Conference, Hoddesdon, 2014)

'Eckhart's Why and Heidegger's What: Beyond Subjectivistic Thought to Groundless Ground' (Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Conference, Liverpool, 2014)

'Aristotle, Heidegger and the Architectonic Structure of Language' (Forum for European Philosophy and the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Liverpool, 2013)

'An Apology for Language' (Temenos Academy, London, 2013)

'Feminist Theology and Meister Eckhart's Transgendered Metaphor' (Feminist Theology: Facing Tradition Conference, Liverpool, 2013)

'Let Us Pray To God To Be Free Of God' (The World Community for Christian Meditation, London, 2012)

'The Visionary Imagination of William Blake' (The Fintry Trust, Brook, Surrey, 2012)

'Poetic Madness and the Extinction of Personality' (Daimonic Imagination and Uncanny Intelligence Conference, Canterbury, 2011)

'Eckhart and the Varieties of Nothing' (The Eckhart Society Conference, London, 2010)

'The Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita' (The British Wheel of Yoga, Canterbury, 2009)

'The Negative Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius' (South East Institute of Theological Education, Canterbury, 2009)

'Teilhard De Chardin and the Scope of Vision' (The British Teilhard Association, London, 2006)