Maxwell Kennel, "Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement" (Brill, 2023)

Brill on the Wire

Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement (Brill, 2023) provides a new paradigm for understanding the concept of violence through comparative interpretations of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, philosophical theologians in the Mennonite pacifist tradition, and Grace M. Jantzen's feminist philosophy of religion. By drawing out and challenging the remarkably similar priorities shared by its three sources, and by challenging the assumption that differences necessarily lead to displacement, Ontologies of Violence provides a critical theory of violence by treating it as a diagnostic concept that implies the violation of value-laden boundaries.

Maxwell Kennel is Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Social Accountability at NOSM University.

Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network.