Colby Dickinson, PhD
Professor of Theology
Colby Dickinson completed a BA in literature at Truman State University (1998), an MTS at Duke Divinity School (2000), an MA in Theology, Religious Education at Saint Louis University (2006), an MAS in Theology at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium (2008), and STB, STL, PhD and STD degrees also completed at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2012). His areas of research include continental philosophy in relation to theology, philosophy of religion, phenomenology and theology, atheism and secularism, and political theology.
Education
Sacrae Theologiae Doctor (S.T.D.), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, 11 May 2012
- Dissertation under Prof. dr. Lieven Boeve and Dr. Frederiek Depoortere: ‘Religious Categories in-between Philosophy and Theology: A Fundamental-Theological Investigation into the “Messianic” and the “Canonical” in Contemporary Continental Thought’
- Thesis: ‘The Processes of Canonicity and their Relation to the Canonical: A Further Freudian Impression’
Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus (S.T.L.), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 6 July 2011
Sacrae Theologiae Baccalaureus (S.T.B.), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 30 June 2010
Master of Advanced Studies in Theology (M.A.S.), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, 2 July 2008
Master of Arts in Theology, Religious Education (M.A.), Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri, 6 January 2006
Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.), Duke Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 14 May 2000
- Thesis: ‘Søren Kierkegaard and the Politics of Poetics: Recovering Poetry as a Theological Discourse’
Bachelor of Arts, Literature (B.A.), Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, 29 May 1998
Research Interests
Continental Philosophy in relation to Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Phenomenology and Theology, Atheism and Secularism, and Political Theology
Courses Taught
Core Level
Introduction to Christian Theology, Introduction to Religious Studies, Roman Catholicism, Religion and Gender, Christianity Throughout Time: Heresies, History of Mysticism, Roman Catholicism: Pilgrimage (at John Felice Rome Center), Western Intellectual Traditions: Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Honors), Capitalism as Religion
Upper Level
History of Christian Thought II: Reformation to Modern Church, 20th Century German Political Theology, Theology of Secularization, Atheism in the Modern World, Nature and Spirituality, History of Metaphysics, Faith in Modernity, Queer Theology, Philosophies and Theologies of Love
Graduate Level
Doctoral Seminars on Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, Radical Political Theologies, Nihilism and Negative Theologies, The Concept of Forgiveness, Sovereignty: Self, State and God, Phenomenology of Religion, Roman Catholic Systematic Theology
Publications/Research Listings
Monographs
Redoubling and the Roots of Metaphysics in the West, ‘Theology and Continental Thought’, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2027.
Sacred Pilgrim, Secular Pilgrim: A Roman Journey, Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2025.
Atheism and Love in the Modern Era: Practicing Indifference, London: Bloomsbury, 2025.
Haunted Words, Haunted Selves: Listening to the Otherness within Western Thought, Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2024.
Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer Series: A Critical Introduction and Guide, Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2022.
Theological Poverty in Continental Philosophy: After Christian Theology, ‘Political Theologies’, London: Bloomsbury, 2021.
The Fetish of Theology: The Challenge of the Fetish-Object to Modernity, ‘Radical Theologies and Philosophies’, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Theology as Autobiography: The Centrality of Confession, Relationship and Prayer to the Life of Faith, Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2020.
Theology and Contemporary Continental Philosophy: The Centrality of a Negative Dialectics, London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Continental Philosophy and Theology, ‘Brill Research Perspectives in Theology’, Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Words Fail: Theology, Poetry, and the Challenge of Representation, ‘Perspectives in Continental Philosophy’, New York: Fordham University Press, 2016.
Agamben’s Coming Philosophy: Finding a New Use for Theology, with Adam Kotsko, London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
Between the Canon and the Messiah: The Structure of Faith in Contemporary Continental Thought, ‘Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy’, London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
Agamben and Theology, ‘Philosophy and Theology’, London: T&T Clark, 2011.
Edited volumes
Continental Philosophy and Theology Across Cultures: Phenomenology, Ontology, and Selfhood, with Jack Nuelle, London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming.
Beyond Continental Philosophies and Colonial Christianities, with Ana Rosa Cloclet da Silva, Douglas Ferreira Barros, Glauco Barsalini and Nathan D. Pederson, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, forthcoming.
Agamben and the Existentialists, with Marcos Norris, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
The Challenge of God: Continental Philosophy and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, with Hugh Miller and Kathleen McNutt, London: Bloomsbury, 2020. Translations: El Desafío de Dios: La Filosofía Continental y la Tradición Intelectual Católica, trans. Pedro A. Reyes Linares, S.J., Ciudad de Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana, 2025.
Queering Theology’s Object, with Meghan Toomey, special issue of Theology and Sexuality 23:1-2 (2017) 1-181.
Walter Benjamin and Theology, with Stéphane Symons, ‘Perspectives in Continental Philosophy’, New York: Fordham University Press, 2016.
Tradition and the Normativity of History, collaborator with Lieven Boeve and Terrence Merrigan, ‘Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium’, Leuven: Peeters, 2013.
The Shaping of Tradition: Context and Normativity, with the collaboration of Lieven Boeve and Terrence Merrigan, ‘Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia’ LXX, Leuven: Peeters, 2013.
The Postmodern Saints of France: Refiguring ‘The Holy’ in Contemporary French Philosophy, London: T&T Clark, 2013.