Brendan Graham Dempsey
Brendan Graham Dempsey (born May 16, 1989) is an American author, poet, and scholar of religion who writes on metamodern spirituality. His work focuses on the perceived "meaning crisis" in contemporary society and the efforts to reconstruct religion after postmodernism.
Academic Studies
Dempsey graduated summa cum laude from the University of Vermont in 2011, where he studied Classical Civilizations and Religious Studies, focusing on Christian history and biblical studies.[1] His honors thesis there would form the basis of his monograph, The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel,[2] which he completed at the Albright Institute of Archeological Research while acting as an assistant-in-residence to Classics professor John Curtis Franklin in 2012.
Suddenly abandoning biblical studies, he turned his attention instead towards the study of religion, art, and culture. Discovering the work of Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker on metamodernism in 2014, he presented his paper "The Death and Resurrection of God in Metamodern Religion" at the Oscillate!: Metamodernism in the Humanities conference at the University of Strathclyde[3] (later revised and published as "[R]econstruction: Metamodern 'Transcendence' and the Return of Myth" in the webzine Notes on Metamodernism).[4]
In 2017, he earned his Master's in Religion (MAR) from Yale University, where he studied Religion and the Arts (literature concentration) at Yale Divinity School's elite inter-disciplinary arts program, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (ISM).[5] While there, he worked closely with poets Christian Wiman and J. D. McClatchy, studying Kierkegaard under John Hare and medieval Christian mysticism with Denys Turner. His ISM thesis explored the doomed relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner in their fraught modern quest for new mythologies,[6] which won the prize for Student's Choice of Best Colloquium Presentation.[7]
After graduating from Yale, he abandoned scholarship entirely to focus on creative theological writing.
Metamodern Spirituality Series
In April of 2021, Dempsey published the first five volumes of the Metamodern Spirituality Series, a book series devoted to exploring issues of meaning-making and spirituality after postmodernism.[8] The various works are all written under various pseudonyms, with Dempsey himself appearing as the "General Editor" of the series, and cover a range of genres, from a triptych of essays, to redacted scripture, to epic poetry.[9]
Dempsey also hosts the Metamodern Spirituality podcast, in which he interviews prominent voices on metamodernism and contemporary spirituality.[10]
Reception
Dempsey's work on metamodernism and religion has been drawn upon by many of the leading scholars currently writing on the topic.[11][12][13][14][15] His videos on metamodernism are also popular on YouTube.
Bibliography
Metamodern Spirituality Series
- Vol. 1. GOD. ISBN 979-8728917342
- Vol. 2. Metamodernism and the Return of Transcendence. ISBN 979-8728412397
- Vol. 3. The Oil and the Lamp. ISBN 978-1667194448
- Vol. 4. Building the Cathedral: Answering the Meaning Crisis through Personal Myth. ISBN 979-8728831211
- Vol. 5. GOSPEL. ISBN 979-8530812149
Articles
- "[R]econstruction: Metamodern 'Transcendence' and the Return of Myth" in the webzine Notes on Metamodernism
Comparative Mythology
- The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel. ISBN 979-8729720446
References
- ↑ Trainor, Kevin. UVM Religion Department Newsletter, Spring 2011. http://www.uvm.edu/cas/enews/documents/religion.newsletter.2011.pdf
- ↑ Dempsey, Brendan Graham. The Combat Myth According to Mark: From Ancient Near Eastern Genre to Apocalyptic Gospel. ISBN 979-8729720446. Search this book on
- ↑ Alexander, Rachael. "Oscillate: Metamodernism and the Humanities" – via Academia.edu.
- ↑ "[Re]construction: Metamodern 'Transcendence' and the Return of Myth | Notes on Metamodernism". Retrieved 2021-09-02.
- ↑ "Welcome, New Students! | Institute of Sacred Music". ism.yale.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
- ↑ Twilight of the Gods: Nietzsche, Wagner, and the Idea of Decadence, retrieved 2021-09-02
- ↑ "Goodbye, Graduates!" (PDF). PRISM. volume xxv, issue 3: 4.
- ↑ "METAMODERN SPIRITUALITY w/ Brendan Graham Dempsey by The Integral Stage: AUTHOR SERIES • A podcast on Anchor". Anchor. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
- ↑ "Aesthesia: a literary salon in Burlington". The Burlington Free Press. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
- ↑ "Brendan Graham Dempsey - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
- ↑ Clasquin-Johnson, L. Towards a metamodern academic study of religion and a more religiously informed metamodernism. Harvard Theological Studies 73(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v73i3.4491.
- ↑ Ceriello, L. Metamodern Mysticisms. Narrative Encounters with Contemporary Western Secular Spiritualities. Dissertation, Rice University, 2018. https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/103873/CERIELLO-DOCUMENT-2018.pdf
- ↑ Bargár, P. The Modern, the Postmodern, and. . . the Metamodern? Reflections on a Transforming Sensibility from the Perspective of Theological Anthropology. Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 38(1):3-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265378820976944
- ↑ Shcherov, V. I. Philosophical aspects of metamodernism. Journal of Gender and Interdisciplinarity 2(1). https://www.periodicojs.com.br/index.php/gei/article/view/159
- ↑ Radchenko S. Bleeding Edge of Postmodernism: Metamodern Writing in the Novel by Thomas Pynchon. Interlitteraria 24(2):495-508.
External Links
- BrendanGrahamDempsey.com - author's official website
- Metamodern Spirituality Series - Amazon book series link
This article "Brendan Graham Dempsey" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Brendan Graham Dempsey. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
