Michael Hoelzl
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at The University of Manchester.
Location: Samuel Alexander Building-WG8
Tel: 44 (0) 161.306.1663
Email: michael.hoelzl@manchester.ac.uk
The following is a short description of Dr. Hoelzl's research interests:
Contrary to the understanding of philosophy of religion in terms of analytical philosophy I conceive 'philosophy of religion' as a critical reflection on religion. This theoretical examination of religion, in the widest sense of its meaning, is critical in so far as it takes into account the context of religious phenomena and theological ideas.
In my earlier work I concentrated on the two different forms of critical theory represented by Michel Foucault and Juergen Habermas with respect to their later work and the Frankfurter Schule which led to a co-edited publication in German, Gottes und des Menschen Tod.
In 2004, I became the Co-investigator (Principal Investigator, Professor Graham Ward) for a research network which was established on the basis of a successful bid to the British Academy for four years' funding (£18,500) aimed at examining the new visibility of religion and its impact on the various forms of European democratic culture, the outcome of which was the recent book, The New Visibility of Religion, published with Continuum in 2008.
My current research is on the work of Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) and the theologico-political background of the concept of sovereignty in particular. I recently translated Schmitt's Political Theology II (with Professor Graham Ward), and am in the process of translating his Dictatorship: From the Beginning of the Modern Concept of Sovereignty to the Proletarian Class-Struggle, forthcoming with Polity Press. My interest in political theory and theology, understood as a specific history of ideas, is also reflected in the research-led MA course at the CRPC as well as my recent publication Religion and Political Thought.