Recently published in the Brill “Political and Public Theologies” series edited by Ulrich Schmiedel, Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement 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.
For more details on the book see here for an interview with Caleb Zakarin at the New Books Network, and here for an interview with Siri Hansen at the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto.
“Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement is a must-read for those seeking to reflect on the complex nature of violence.” – Esteban Morales, Royal Roads University
“Kennel’s work provides indispensable insights into the landscape of political theology, philosophy, and social theory. …While Kennel shares Radical Orthodoxy’s critique of the privatization of religion and the myth of purely secular spaces, he does so with a humble dispossession, care, and nuance absent from scholars such as Milbank… Overall, Kennel provides a strong case for an intersectional and nonviolent approach to knowing, thinking, and being in the world.” – Andrew Banacos in Reading Religion
“Kennel’s Ontologies of Violence does not offer a definition that can become the cornerstone of a political vision. Instead, it undoes easy sloganeering and even challenges the headiest of theorizing in order to bring to the fore what is left unsaid when the term ‘violence’ is said.”
– Guy Lancaster in Marx & Philosophy Review of Books (November 2023)
“A sophisticated, state-of-the-art discussion of core philosophical issues around pacifism and peace theology.”
– Douglas B. Miller in Direction 54 (2025)
In Ontologies of Violence Maxwell Kennel renews conversations about the nature of violence by charting a course through Derrida and Mennonite political theology toward Grace Jantzen’s celebration of life and beauty. In doing so, Kennel offers a positive vision – or story – of peace that refuses to subordinate difference to a predetermined harmony. The importance of this approach becomes especially clear in the book’s conclusion, where Kennel brilliantly engages with intersectional theories of violence and the question of public health.
–Jamie Pitts, Associate Professor Anabaptist Studies, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
In December 2022 part of the book’s third chapter was published in the UK journal Angelaki, providing the first comprehensive interpretation of all three volumes of Grace Jantzen’s trilogy, Death and the Displacement of Beauty. Being a revision of my 2021 dissertation, and building on my earlier work in a long preparatory article called “Critique of Metaphysical Violence” (published in Dialogue in late 2017), Ontologies of Violence draws together French philosophy, Mennonite pacifism, and Jantzen’s unique approach to violence in order to reframe the problem of violence in relation to value-laden boundaries.
Contents
Introduction. What is Violence?
Chapter 1. Jacques Derrida’s Original Violence
Chapter 2. Mennonite Pacifist Epistemology and Ontological Peace
Chapter 3. Grace Jantzen’s Critique of Violent Displacement
Conclusion. Violence as the Violation of Value-Laden Boundaries
Dr. Maxwell Kennel 