Kenneth G. MacKendrick

Kenneth G. MacKendrick has taught in the Department of Religion, University of Manitoba since 2002. His doctoral thesis on the early writings of Jürgen Habermas was completed at the Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto and has been published by Routledge as Discourse, Desire, and Fantasy in Jürgen Habermas’ Critical Theory (2008). He has also published articles on critical theory and religion, discourse ethics, thanatology, and the writings of Chuck Palahniuk. MacKendrick’s teaching interests deal with four areas of study: contemporary Christianity (fundamentalism and charismatic movements, secularization), evil and
world religions, method and theory in the study of religion (critical theory,
hermeneutics, psychology of religion), and thanatology / thanatopraxis. His current research focuses on the theorization of communicative rationality
and ritual interaction, death rituals and deathscapes, and the relation between religion and youth culture. He is a member of the editorial review board for the series Studies in Critical Research on Religion in association with Brill Academic Publishers and Haymarket Books and a research associate of the Center for Critical Research on Religion.

Publications:

Books:

2008. Discourse, Desire, and Fantasy in Jürgen Habermas’ Critical Theory. New York: Routledge.

Refereed Journal Articles:

“We Have an Imaginary Friend in Jesus: What Imaginary Companions and Tell Us about Religion.” Implicit Religion 15, no. 1 (2012): forthcoming.

2010. “The Challenge of Postmetaphysical Thinking and the Nature of Religious Thought.” Islamic Perspective 3: 28-49.

2009. “Evil in World Religions at the University of Manitoba (2002-2008): An Introduction and Provocation.” Golem Journal of Religion and Monsters 3(1): 38-55.

2005. “Intersubjectivity and the ‘Revival of Death’: Toward a Critique of Sovereign Individualism.” Critical Sociology 31(1-2): 169-185.

2000. “The Moral Imaginary of Discourse Ethics.” Critical Horizons 1(2): 247-269.

1999. “The Aporetics of a Tennis Playing Brontosaurus, or, A Critical Theory of Religion: A Rejoinder to Russell McCutcheon and William Arnal.” Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses 28(1): 77-83.

Book Chapters:

2009. “Chuck Palahniuk and the New Journalism Revolution.” In Sacred and Immoral: On the Writings of Chuck Palahniuk. Edited by Jeffrey Sartain, 1-21. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2009. with Nicole Goulet. “Selected Bibliography.” In Reading Chuck Palahniuk: American Monsters and Literary Mayhem. Edited by Cynthia Kuhn and Lance Rubin, 225-236. New York: Routledge.

2006. “Intersubjectivity and Religious Language: Toward a Critique of Regressive Trends in Thanatology.” In Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion. Edited by Warren S. Goldstein, 179-201. Leiden and Boston: Brill.