Associate Professor Simon Podmore
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
School of Humanities
0151 291 3573
podmors@hope.ac.uk
I have been fascinated by religion and spirituality, particularly the 'darker' aspects, since as long as I can remember - despite growing up in a non-religious household. This passion led me to study for an M.A. (Hons.) in Theological Studies at the University of St. Andrews, where I was awarded the prestigious Miller Prize in Arts. I also hold a PhD from King's College, University of London (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council), and an M.A. by Research in Jewish & Holocaust Studies from the University of Birmingham (funded by the British Academy). After completion of my doctorate, I undertook training and employment in Counselling and Mental Health Services (in the NHS and University sectors), and completed a Certificate in Counselling and Psychotherapy from the Westminster Pastoral Foundation. This helped to shape my research interests as well as my approach to teaching and pastoral care.
I then moved to Minnesota in the United States where I held the Kierkegaard House Foundation Fellowship at The Hong Kierkegaard Library Center for Research and Publication, St Olaf College. Returning to the UK, I taught at the University of Edinburgh before being awarded the Gordon Milburn Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College, Oxford, in conjunction with the award of a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford. From Oxford I moved to Liverpool Hope University and am currently Associate Professor in the Department of Theology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.
Broadly conceived, my research and teaching explores the confluence between constructive, philosophical, and mystical theology, psychotherapy, and the arts. I have published two monographs, co-edited three books, edited one Journal Special Issue, and authored over forty peer-reviewed Journal articles & chapters in edited volumes.
I am co-founder of The Mystical Theology Network (https://mysticaltheologynetwork.org/), established in order to reflect upon the status currently being assigned to the mystical and the apophatic within theology today; and former Secretary of the Soren Kierkegaard Society of the United Kingdom (www.kierkegaard.org.uk).
I am especially interested in questions surrounding the relationship between self-consciousness and consciousness of God. This interest is motivated by a particular concern with the radical otherness of God, on the one hand; and, on the other, the prospect of divine union in which such otherness seems to diminish. My first book, Kierkegaard and the Self Before God: Anatomy of the Abyss (Indiana University Press, 2011) (https://iupress.org/9780253222824/kierkegaard-and-the-self-before-god/), explores the difficult relationship between consciousness of self and consciousness of God with reference to the problem of the "infinite qualitative difference between" the human and the divine. I developed related themes in Christian spirituality further in my next monograph, Struggling with God: Kierkegaard & the Temptation of Spiritual Trial (James Clarke & co., 2013) (https://www.jamesclarke.co/product/struggling-with-god-kierkegaard-and-the-temptation-of-spiritual-trial/). This book provides both a reconstruction and a contemporary constructive account of the category of spiritual struggle (Anfechtung) in relation to mystical, Lutheran, and existential theology; the nature of evil and the secret of suffering; kenosis-in-ekstasis; the desire of Spirit; and the darkness of God.
I am also co-editor of three books in the study of mysticism: Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy: Interchange in the Wake of God, (Routledge, 2017) (https://www.routledge.com/Mystical-Theology-and-Continental-Philosophy-Interchange-in-the-Wake-of-God/Lewin-Podmore-Williams/p/book/9780367881788); Exploring Lost Dimensions in Christian Mysticism: Opening to the Mystical (Ashgate, 2013; Routledge, 2021) (https://www.routledge.com/Exploring-Lost-Dimensions-in-Christian-Mysticism-Opening-to-the-Mystical/Nelstrop-Podmore/p/book/9781032099071); and Christian Mysticism and Incarnation Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence (Ashgate, 2013; Routledge, 2021) (https://www.routledge.com/Christian-Mysticism-and-Incarnational-Theology-Between-Transcendence-and-Immanence/Nelstrop-Podmore/p/book/9781032099095). I am also Guest Editor of Religions: Special Issue: Mystical Theology: Negation and Desolation (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/954944NE1R).
I am currently writing my third single-authored monograph, Dark Night of the Holy: Apophatic Abyss and Negative Numinous, which develops a distinctive theological approach to traumatic images of God, drawing on the notions of the 'numinous' and the apophatic strategies of mystical un-knowing in Christian and Jewish traditions.
I am also currently developing my MA by Research dissertation in Jewish and Holocaust Studies into a fifth monograph. This project explores the under-developed relation between Kabbalah Studies and (Post-)Holocaust Theology, with particular focus on how kabbalistic notions of Tsimtsum, or divine 'contraction', inform the post-Holocaust search for a mystical theodicy or anti-theodicy. This is a search that, rather than offering a conclusive answer to the problem of evil, remains inexorably open-ended - open even to the possibility of protesting against God.
I tend to be drawn to the darker, and hence often under-examined, aspects of theology and religion and their relationships with issues in philosophy, spirituality, and mental health. A sense of my interests can be gained from my contribution to BBC Radio 4 Beyond Belief on the topic of 'Religion and Fear': http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lhbgs).
Teaching Specialisms
Philosophical Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Mystical Theology and Mysticism
Religious and Mystical Experience
Holocaust Theology
Religious Ethics and Spirituality
Evil and Suffering
Enlightenment Challenges to Christianity
Theories of the Sacred
Religion, Art, & Literature
Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
I welcome proposals for PhD study in areas pertaining to:
The thought, influences, and reception of Soren Kierkegaard, Rudolf Otto, and Martin Luther
Mysticism: particularly Christian and Jewish (Kabbalah and Hasidism)
Theology and Philosophy of the Shoah (Holocaust)
Existentialism (Christian, Jewish, and Atheist)
The nature and problems of Evil and Suffering
Religion and Trauma
Melancholy, Anxiety, Despair, Spiritual Struggle
Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Religious and Mystical Experience
Continental Philosophy of Religion
Relationships between Theology, the Arts, and Psychotherapy
School/Faculty Roles
MA Co-ordinator
Moderator for the Maryvale Institute's PhD programme
School Research Committee
Recent Publications and Projects
Guest Editor, Religions: Special Issue: Mystical Theology: Negation and Desolation (2024)
'The Mystical Horizon', Hjördis Becker-Lindenthal (ed.), Kierkegaard and Mysticism (London & New York: Routledge, forthcoming)
‘Renunciations of God: Traces of Tsimtsum & Kenōsis in Simone Weil’s Mystical Ethics of Love’, Saeko Yazaki & Louise Nelstrop (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Mysticism (London & New York: Routledge, 2024)
‘The Kabbalistic Concept of Tsimtsum (“Contraction”)’, Matthias Grebe & (eds.), T. & T. Clark Handbook of Suffering and the Problem of Evil (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2023)
‘Abyss Calls Unto Abyss: Tsimtsum and Kenosis in the Rupture of God-forsakenness’, in Agata Bielik-Robson and Daniel H. Weiss (eds.), Tsimtsum and Modernity: Lurianic Heritage in Modern Philosophy & Theology (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021)
‘Theological Anthropology: Spirit as the Self “Before” and “Resting in” God’, in David Gouwens and Aaron Edwards (eds.), The T&T Clark Companion to Kierkegaard (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2020)
Further Select Publications
Monographs
Struggling with God: Kierkegaard & the Temptation of Spiritual Trial (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2013)
Kierkegaard & the Self Before God: Anatomy of the Abyss (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011) (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion)
Dark Night of the Holy: Apophatic Abyss and Negative Numinous (forthcoming)
Contractions of God: Exile and Evil in Kabbalah and Holocaust Theology (forthcoming)
Edited Volumes
Simon D. Podmore (ed.), Religions, Special Issue: Mystical Theology: Negation & Desolation (MDPI Open Access, 2024)
David Lewin, Simon D. Podmore, and Duane Williams (eds.), Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy: Interchange in the Wake of God (London & New York: Routledge, 2017)
Simon D. Podmore & Louise Nelstrop (eds.), Exploring Lost Dimensions in Christian Mysticism: Opening to the Mystical (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013/Routledge, 2021)
Simon D. Podmore & Louise Nelstrop (eds.), Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013/Routledge, 2021)
Simon D. Podmore & Duane Williams (eds.), Thinking About Nothing: Negation, Philosophy, & the Mystical (forthcoming)
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles & Chapters in Edited Volumes
'The Mystical Horizon', Hjördis Becker-Lindenthal (ed.), Kierkegaard and Mysticism (London & New York: Routledge, forthcoming)
‘The Kabbalistic Concept of Tsimtsum (“Contraction”)’, Matthias Grebe & (eds.), T. & T. Clark Handbook of Suffering and the Problem of Evil (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2023)
‘Renunciations of God: Traces of Tsimtsum & Kenōsis in Simone Weil’s Mystical Ethics of Love’, Saeko Yazaki & Louise Nelstrop (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Mysticism (London & New York: Routledge, 2023)
‘Abyss Calls Unto Abyss: Tsimtsum and Kenosis in the Rupture of God-forsakenness’, in Agata Bielik-Robson and Daniel H. Weiss (eds.), Tsimtsum and Modernity: Lurianic Heritage in Modern Philosophy & Theology (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021), pp. 311-338
‘Theological Anthropology: Spirit as the Self “Before” and “Resting in” God’, in David Gouwens and Aaron Edwards (eds.), The T&T Clark Companion to Kierkegaard (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2020), pp. 241-260
‘The Gaze of Divine Sorrow: Visio and Unio Mystica’, in Louise Nelstrop and Helen Appleton (eds.), Art and Mysticism: Interfaces in the Medieval and Modern Periods (London & New York: Routledge, 2018), pp. 246-268.
‘Luther in Modern European Philosophy’, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther, edited by Derek Nelson and Paul Hinlicky (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017). Online version in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. (Oxford University Press, 2017).
‘The Spiritual Trial of Divine Seduction: Temptation and the Confessing Self’, in Pafenroth and Russell (eds.) Augustine & Kierkegaard, Augustine in Conversation: Tradition and Innovation Series (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), pp. 63-87.
‘Mysterium Secretum et Silentiosum: Praying the Apophatic Self’, in Lewin, Podmore, Williams (eds.) Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy (Routledge, 2017), pp. 197-216.
‘The Anarchē of Spirit: Proudhon’s Anti-Theism and Kierkegaard’s Self in Apophatic Perspective’, in Alexandre Christoyannopoulos and Matthew Adams (eds.), Essays in Anarchism and Religion (Stockholm University Press/Open Access, 2017), pp. 238-282.
‘Transfiguring Forgiveness: The Apophatic Self and the Way of Forgetting’, in C. Stephen Evans and Paul Martens (eds.), Kierkegaard and Christian Faith (Baylor University Press, 2016), pp. 117-130.
‘Theophany of the Abyss: Job and the Negative Numinous’, in Harmut Von Sass and Leonie Ratschow (eds.), God’s Spiritual Trial: A Paradigm Shift in Engaging Theologically with the Book of Job/Die Anfechtung Gottes: Ein Paradigmenwechsel in der theologischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Hiobbuch (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2016), pp. 233-261.
‘Between Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology: The Insider/Outsider Self’, in Jon Stewart (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Kierkegaard (Oxford: Blackwell, 2015), pp. 415-434.
‘The Forgotten and the God-forsaken: The Apophasis of Forgiveness’, in Johannes Zachhuber & Hartmut Von Sass (eds.), Forgiving & Forgetting: At the Margins of Soteriology (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015), pp. 99-116.
‘Mysterium Horrendum: Mystical Theology & the Negative Numinous’, in Louise Nelstrop & Simon D. Podmore (eds.), Exploring Lost Dimensions in Christian Mysticism: Opening to the Mystical (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013/Routledge, 2016), pp. 93-116
‘Transforming Presence: Incarnation Between Transcendence and Immanence’, in Louise Nelstrop & Simon D. Podmore (eds.), Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013/Routledge, 2016), pp.1-12
‘Mysticism’s Secret: A Silent Prayer of Unknowing’, in Hartmut Von Sass (ed.), Stille Tropen: Zur Rhetorik und Grammatik des Schweigens (München: Verlag Karl Alber, 2013), pp. 218-239.
‘My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? Between Consolation & Desolation’, in Christopher C.H. Cook (ed.), Spirituality, Theology & Mental Health: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (London: SCM Press, 2013), pp. 193-210.
‘The Abyss of the Heart: Transfiguration and the Imago Dei’, in Králik et al (eds), Acta Kierkegaardiana VI: Kierkegaard and Human Nature (Toronto and Šal’a: Kierkegaard Circle, 2013), pp. 88-104.
‘The Holy as Wholly Other: Kierkegaard on Divine Alterity’, The Heythrop Journal 53.1 (2012), pp. 9-23.
‘The Sacrifice of Silence: Fear & Trembling & the Secret of Faith’, International Journal for Systematic Theology Volume 14.1 January 2012, pp. 70-90.
‘A Theologian’s Response: Otherness in Dialogue’, in G. Pattison & H. M. Jensen, Kierkegaard’s Pastoral Dialogues (Wipf and Stock, 2012), pp. 113-121
'“To Die and Yet Not Die”: Kierkegaard's Theophany of Death', in Patrick Stokes & Adam Buben (eds.), Kierkegaard & Death (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), pp. 44-64.
‘Lazarus & The Sickness Unto Death: An Allegory of Despair’, Journal of Religion & the Arts 14.4, 2011, pp. 486-519.
‘Carl Rogers: “To Be That Self Which One Truly Is”’, in Jon Stewart (ed.), Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources: Volume 13: Kierkegaard's Influence on the Social Sciences (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011), pp. 239-258.
'Kierkegaard as Physician of the Soul: On Self-Forgiveness & Despair', Journal of Psychology & Theology, Fall 2009, Volume 37, Number 3, pp. 174-185.
'The Infinite Quality of Forgiveness: The (Im)possible and the (Un)forgivable', in C. Diatka and R. Králik (eds.) Acta Kierkegaardiana Vol III: Kierkegaard and Christianity (Mexico City/Barcelona/Sala: Sociedad Iberoamericana de Estudios Kierkegaardianos, University of Barcelona, Kierkegaard Society in Slovakia, 2008), pp. 117-131.
'Crucified by God: Kazantzakis & The Last Anfechtung of Christ', Literature and Theology Vol. 22 No. 4 December 2008, pp. 419-435.
'Struggling With God: Kierkegaard/Proudhon', in C. Diatka and R. Králik (eds.) Acta Kierkegaardiana Vol II: Kierkegaard and Great Philosophers (Mexico City/Barcelona/Sala: Sociedad Iberoamericana de Estudios Kierkegaardianos, University of Barcelona, Kierkegaard Society in Slovakia, 2007), pp. 90-103.
Translated into Slovak as: ‘Zápas s Bohm: Kierkegaard vs. Proudhon’, trans. Dana Kuchariková, in Kierkegaard Ako Filozof Lásky (Kierkegaard as Philosopher of Love), Acta Kierkegaardiana: Supplement 3 (Kierkegaard Circle, Toronto & Central European Research Institute of Søren Kierkegaard, Nitra, 2012), pp. 193-207.
'The Lightning and the Earthquake: Kierkegaard on the Anfechtung of Luther', The Heythrop Journal XLVII (2006), pp. 562-578.
'The Dark Night of Suffering & the Darkness of God: God-forsakenness or Forsaking God in Gospel of Sufferings & St. John of the Cross', in Robert Perkins (ed.), International Kierkegaard Commentary: Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2005), pp. 229-256