Dr. Maxwell Kennel

Senior Research Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies

Director of Pandora Press and Editor of the Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies Series.

Co-Investigator on the CREATE Project and Affiliate at the Arcand Centre for Health Equity at NOSM University.

Author of Postsecular History (Palgrave, 2022) and Ontologies of Violence (Brill, 2023).

Editor of Astrid von Schlachta’s Anabaptists. Trans. Victor Thiessen (Pandora, 2024), Thomas Kaufman’s The Anabaptists. Trans. Christina Moss (Pandora, 2024), and Hans-Jürgen Goertz’s Conrad Grebel (1498-1526): Critic of Pious Facades. Trans. Christina Moss (Pandora, 2025).

Co-Editor of Messianic Imagination (Cascade, 2025), and (with Berit Jany), Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Anabaptists: A Comedy in Two Acts. Trans. Lauren Friesen (Pandora, 2025).

Publications

Current Projects

Recent, In-Press, and Forthcoming (2025)

Symposium on Ontologies of Violence, Syndicate (forthcoming 2026). Including the following responses:

  1. Complex and Contextual Mediations: A Response to Daniel Shank Cruz
  2. Releasing Christology: A Response to Paul Doerksen
  3. Anabaptist Values: A Response to Jamie Pitts
  4. What does Derrida want? A Response to David Newheiser
  5. Can ontology be without violence? Or, Five Theses on the Far-Right: A Response to Paulo Ravecca
  6. The Sea and the Night: A Response to Eleanor Craig

“Pacifist Historiography: Anabaptist History between Normativity and Description and beyond Neutralization and Polarization” Angelaki 30.4 (August 2025): 34-48.

“Domination and Dignity: A Conversation with Vincent Lloyd on the Black Radical Tradition” in Theory, Culture & Society. https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/RPBGYINAH7FZUABAN2DD/full

Interview with Caleb Zakarin on Astrid von Schlachta’s Anabaptists for the New Books Network: https://newbooksnetwork.com/anabaptists

“Editor’s Afterword: What Can Anabaptism Do?” in Astrid von Schlachta, Anabaptists: From the Reformation to the 21st Century. Translated by Victor Thiessen. Edited by Maxwell Kennel. (Hamilton, ON: Pandora Press, 2024).

Recent and Forthcoming Publications on Social Accountability in Medical Education

“Empowering Faculty in Socially Accountable Medical Education,” Maxwell Kennel, Ghislaine Attema, Jyotsna Rimal, Prattama Santoso Utomo, and Nicholas Torres. Forthcoming in Social Accountability of Medical Schools: Empowering the Future of Medical Education and Healthcare. Edited by Mohamed Elhassan Abdalla, Mohamed Hassan Taha, and Charles Boelen (Springer, 2025). (PDF) https://link.springer.com/book/9783031944345

“Socially Accountable Research,” Maxwell Kennel, Kerri Delaney, Jessica Jurgutis, Joseph LeBlanc, Sarah Larkins, Karen Johnston, Erin Cameron. Forthcoming in Social Accountability of Medical Schools: Empowering the Future of Medical Education and Healthcare. Edited by Mohamed Elhassan Abdalla, Mohamed Hassan Taha, and Charles Boelen (Springer, 2025). (PDF) https://link.springer.com/book/9783031944345

Larche CL, Kennel M, Tackett S, Marsh DC, Cameron E. “Enhancing Social Accountability in Medical Education and Accreditation: A Meeting Report.” Advances in Medical Education Practice. 2025;16:471-476. https://doi.org/10.2147/AMEP.S508928

Maxwell Kennel*, Kerri Z. Delaney*, Jennifer Dumond, Jessica Jurgutis, Alex Anawati, Joseph LeBlanc, David Marsh, Erin Cameron (*co-first-authors), “Characterising socially accountable research: a scoping review protocol paper.” BMJ Open, 15(7) (2025), e093101. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-093101 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40615139/

“Integrating Indigenous data sovereignty principles into learning health systems: Framework analysis and survey of Canadian practice-based research and learning networks,” Brianne Wood, Barbara Zelek, Roya Daneshemand, Maxwell Kennel, Sophia Myles, Robyn O’Loughlin, Darrel Manitowabi. forthcoming in the Annals of Family Medicine.

Works in Progress (2025-2026)

Critique of Conspiracism: Critical Theory, Religion, and the Limits of Conspiratorial Reason. Conspiracy Theories Series. London: Routledge, under contract.

Mennonite Metaphysics: Social Critique Out of the Sources of the Radical Reformation. Theopolitical Visions Series. Eugene, OR: Cascade, under contract.

Edited Volume

Messianic Imagination: Politics, Theology, and Literature [A festschrift for P. Travis Kroeker]. Edited by Joseph Wiebe, Paul G. Doerksen, Maxwell Kennel, and Grant Poettcker; foreword by Stanley Hauerwas. Cascade, in-press Fall 2025. 290 pp. Includes a co-authored editors’ introduction, and my chapter “Critique of Possessive Desire,” 77-92.

Books

2. Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement. Political and Public Theologies Series no. 4. Leiden: Brill, July 2023. 244 pp. ISBN-13: 978-90-04-54643-1 (Softcover).  

1. Postsecular History: Political Theology and the Politics of Time. Radical Theologies and Philosophies Series no. 27. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. 230 pp. ISBN-13: 978-3-030-85757-8 (Hardcover November 2021. Softcover December 2022. MyCopy available for students.)

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Journal Symposium

Guest editor of a symposium on my book Postsecular History in Political Theology 24.3 (2023): 338-358.

Journal Special Issue

Guest editor of a journal special issue on Mennonite Political Theology in Political Theology 22.3, (2021).

Policy Dossier

“Institutional Journeys toward Social Accountability in Medical and Allied Health Institutions: From Policy Influence to Accreditation Transformation.” A special issue dossier of the Social Innovations Journal 26 (2024).

Research Articles (Peer Reviewed)

18. “Pacifist Historiography: Anabaptist History between Normativity and Description and beyond Neutralization and Polarization” Angelaki 30.4 (August 2025): 34-48. Translation into German forthcoming in the Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter (2026).

17. “Anabaptist Critique” Mennonite Quarterly Review 99 (January 2025): 209-216. PDF.

16. “Boundaries, Violence, and Accountability: Reading Miriam Toews’ Women Talking with Jenny Hval’s Girls Against God“ Conrad Grebel Review 41 (2023). Published in early 2025. PDF.

15. “Anabaptism contra Philosophy” Special issue on Anabaptists and Philosophy, with a response from Christian Early (James Madison University). Conrad Grebel Review 40.2 (Spring 2022): 138-157. Published in April 2024. Full Issue PDF.

14. “Violent Displacements” Angelaki 27.6 (October 2022): 67-82.

13. “Violent Inclinations” Conrad Grebel Review 39.2 (Spring 2021): 118-134. (PDF)

12. “Plato, Adorno, and the Dialectic” Identities 18.1-2 (2021): 84-97. (PDF)

11. “Violence and the Romance of Community: Darkness and Enlightenment in Patrick Friesen’s The Shunning,” Literature & Theology 33.4 (December 2019): 394-413.

10. “Periodization and Providence: Time and Eternity between Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Augustine’s Confessions,” Telos 188 (2019): 103-126.

9. “The Gospel of All Creatures: An Anabaptist Natural Theology for Mennonite Political Theology,” Journal of Mennonite Studies 37 (2019): 353-368.

8. “Mennonite Political Theology and Feminist Critique,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 93.3 (July 2019): 393-412. (PDF)

7. “Müntzer, Taubes, and the Anabaptists: Emancipatory History and Political Theology,” Political Theology 20.3 (2019) [online September 2018]: 191-206. (Updated 2021 Version: PDF)

6. “The Regulation of the Subject by the Technology of Time,” Rhizomes 34 (2018). (PDF)

5. “Critique of Metaphysical Violence,” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review/Revue canadienne de philosophie 58.1 (March 2019) [online November 2017]: 125-162. (PDF)

4. “Mennonite Metaphysics? Exploring the Philosophical Aspects of Mennonite Theology from Pacifist Epistemology to Ontological Peace” Mennonite Quarterly Review 91.3 (July 2017): 403-421. (PDF).

3. “Postsecular History: Contemporary Continental Philosophy of Religion and the Seventeenth Century Dutch Collegiant Movement,” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 46.3 (September 2017) [online May 2017]: 406-432. (PDF).

2. “Identity, Ontology, and the Two / Идентитет, онтологија, и две,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender, and Culture 13 (2016-2017): 101-136. English & Macedonian. Translated by Jordan Šišovski. (PDF)

1. “What is a Compendium?” Continent 3.1 (Spring 2013): 44-49. (PDF) 

Dialectics Unbound. Dead Letter Office pamphlet series (Brooklyn, NY: Punctum Books, 2013): 41 pp. (PDF)

Edited Book

DFL Cover

Robert Friedmann, Design for Living: Regard, Concern, Service, and Love. Edited by Maxwell Kennel. Foreword by Leonard Gross (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2017): 200pp (publisher, Amazon.ca, Amazon.com).

– Includes my introduction “Discovering the Other Friedmann” (PDF).
– Reviewed in Mennonite Life 72 (2018) (PDF), Mennonite Quarterly Review 93.4 (2019) (PDF), and the Conrad Grebel Review 38.3 (2020):

cgrDownload

Non-Peer Reviewed Contributions

Editor of the Institutional Self-Assessment Social Accountability Tool (ISAT) 2.0. The Network: Towards Unity for Health (TUFH), an official non-state actor of the World Health Organization (WHO). (PDF / Guide). March 2024.

Erin Cameron, Cynthia Larche, Maxwell Kennel, Bob Woollard, Charles Boelen, David Marsh, “Leveraging Accreditation to Move Health Institutions toward Social Accountability,” Social Innovations Journal 21 (2023).

“Metaphysics of the Book,” Macrina Magazine (November 25, 2023).

“Secular Mennonite Social Critique: Pluralism, Interdisciplinarity, and Mennonite Studies,” in Anabaptist Remix. Eds. Lauren Friesen and Dennis Koehn (Basel: Peter Lang, 2022), 49-76.

“Factory Time,” Hamilton Arts and Letters 14.1 (Spring 2021).

“Religious Studies and Internal Family Systems Therapy,” Implicit Religion 23.3 (2020): 293-304.

“Secular Mennonites and the Violence of Pacifism: Miriam Toews at McMaster,” Hamilton Arts and Letters 13.2 (Fall 2020). Special Issue edited by Grace Kehler. [PDF]

“Philosophy,” an entry in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Update to the 1989 entry by J. Lawrence Burkholder. (April 2020).

Articles and Editions for Anabaptist Historians (2020-2022)

“Pandora Press in 2022” Anabaptist Historians (July 2022).

“A Grace Jantzen Bibliography (1977-2020)” Anabaptist Historians (May 2021).

Edgar Metzler, Let’s Talk About Extremism. Originally published in 1968 in the Herald Press Focal Pamphlet series. 25 pp. Ed. Maxwell Kennel. Anabaptist Historians (January 2021).

Emma LaRoque (Ed.). In Search of Peace: A Challenge from Four Non-white North American Mennonites. Originally published in 1976 by the Mennonite Central Committee Peace Section. 40 pp. Edited and digitized by Maxwell Kennel. Anabaptist Historians (October 2020). [PDF]

“The Philosophical Legacy of Robert Friedmann” Anabaptist Historians (July 2020).

Select Review Essays (2014-2016)

“Questioning Secularization, History, and Ethics,” review essay on Radical Secularization? An Inquiry into the Religious Roots of Secular Culture. Ed. Latré et. Al. SCTIW Review. (October 2016).

“Parricide and Polemic,” a review essay on Transgression and the Inexistent: A Philosophical Vocabulary, by Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, PhaenEx 11.2 (Fall/Winter 2016): 103-108.

“The Recovery of the One,” a review essay on Cut of the Real: Subjectivity in Poststructuralist Philosophy by Katerina Kolozova, Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy 22 (2015): 126-130.

“Post-Secularism, Immanence, and the Critique of Transcendence,” a review essay on Deleuze and the Naming of God by Daniel C. Barber, PhaenEx 9.2 (Fall/Winter 2014): 188-198.

Media

“Challenging the notion that religion fosters violence,” The Conversation (November 2017).

Select Book Reviews

Research Presentations

  • Cameron, E., Kennel, M., Delaney, K. Jurgutis, J., Strasser, R., Leblanc, J. & Anawati, A. “Developing Socially Accountable Research Networks.” The Network: Towards Unity for Health Conference – Cape Town, South Africa (Sept 2024).
  • Chair, Moderator, and Contributor to “Towards a Global Consensus on Medical School Accreditation Standards for Better Health” Social Accountability Standing Committee (ISAASC) Session at the International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM). Vancouver, April 13, 2024.
  • “What is Social Accountability? Philosophical and Critical Considerations” Human Sciences Seminar Series. NOSM University, Thunder Bay. Thursday January 18th 2024. [Invited, accredited CEPD session. Recording available here.]
  • “Social Accountability, Health Care, and Religion: Social Bonds of Public Trust between Secularity and Religion.” American Academy of Religion: Bioethics Unit. San Antonio, Texas. November 2023.
  • “Transgression and Accountability: Boundaries and Violence in Miriam Toews’ Women Talking and Jenny Hval’s Girls Against God.” American Academy of Religion: Mennonite Scholars and Friends Forum. San Antonio, Texas. November 2023.
  • “AI for Public Health: Philosophical and Critical Considerations,” A panel presentation at the Artificial Intelligence for Public Health conference at NOSM University, Thunder Bay, ON. October 24, 2023.
  • “Social Accountability and Methodological Violence: Reframing Socially Accountable Research.” Northern Health Research Conference. Thunder Bay, Ontario. June 1st 2023.

–

  • “Mennonite Literary Criticism and/as Secular Social Critique,” Mennonite/s Writing 2022: An International Conference. Goshen College. Delivered by proxy, September 30, 2022.
  • “Anabaptism contra Philosophy: On Violence, Enmity, and Interdisciplinarity.” Anabaptists and Philosophy Roundtable Lecture Series no. 2. April 27, 2022.
  • “Metaphysics of the Book?” Theory Sessions Lecture Series. Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism. Western University. March 25, 2022.
  • “Conspiracism and Critique: A Critical Theory and Political Theology of Conspiratorial Thinking” Department Colloquium Series, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto. March 17, 2022.
  • “Postsecular Entanglements” A response to an online launch symposium for my book Postsecular History, hosted by the Toronto Mennonite Theological Center. Toronto, Ontario. March 2, 2022.
  • “Violence, Religion, and Conspiratorial Thinking,” Religion and Popular Culture Unit, American Academy of Religion Meetings. San Antonio, Texas and online. November 22, 2021.
  • “Posthumanism and Postsecular History,” Webinar Panel. Posthumanism Research Institute. Brock University. March 8, 2021.
  • “Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement,” Webinar Panel. Canadian Society for the Study of Religion. October 29, 2020.
  • “Secular Mennonite Social Critique: Pluralism, Interdisciplinarity, and Mennonite Studies,” Scholar’s Forum, Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre, Toronto School of Theology. January 8, 2020.
  • “Political Theology and the Politics of Time: Theopolitical Periodization in Adam Kotsko’s Neoliberalism’s Demons,” Panel on The Devil and the Demons: Neoliberal Theology in the Work of Adam Kotsko. Theology and Continental Philosophy Unit. American Academy of Religion Meetings. San Diego, California. November 23, 2019. [published in the first chapter of Postsecular History]
  • “Friesen-Foucault: Violence and Community between The Shunning and The Politics of Truth,” Religion and Public Life Conference. Wilfrid Laurier University. Waterloo, Ontario. March 16, 2019. [published in Literature & Theology as “Violence and the Romance of Community”]
  • “Epistemology of Refusal,” Refusing to Fight: Reimagining War in Global Perspectives. Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Brock University. St. Catharines, Ontario. October 12, 2018.
  • “Emancipatory History: Supersessionism, Restitutionism, and Taubes’ Occidental Eschatology” Mennonite Scholars and Friends Meeting. American Academy of Religion. Boston, MA. November 17, 2017.
  • “A Critique of Ontological Peace,” Anabaptist Theology Conference: Methods and Practices, Humanitas Anabaptist Mennonite Centre. Langley, British Columbia. June 7, 2017.
  • “Postsecularity and Nonviolent Epistemology” American Academy of Religion Eastern International Region. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. April 28, 2017.
  • “Mennonite Metaphysics? Exploring a Contradiction,” Scholar’s Forum, Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre, Toronto School of Theology. Toronto, Ontario. January 23, 2017.
  • “Anabaptist Mennonite Literary Hermeneutics,” Mennonite/s Writing Conference VII: Movement, Transformation, Place. Fresno Pacific University. Fresno, California. March 14, 2015.
  • “Saturation and Reduction between Phenomenology and Hermeneutics,” Canadian Philosophical Association, Congress of the Humanities. University of Ottawa. Ottawa, Ontario. May 31, 2015.
  • “Hermeneutics and the Phenomenology of Givenness,” Breached Horizons: The Work of Jean-Luc Marion, CAREP, King’s University College, Western University. London, Ontario. March 28, 2015.
  • “A Proposal for Nonviolent Metaphysics,” Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre Graduate Student Conference VI. Canadian Mennonite University. Winnipeg, Manitoba. May 30, 2014.
  • “Mennonite Identity and Metaphysics,” Research Seminar, Institute of Anabaptist Mennonite Studies. Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo. Waterloo, Ontario. May 10, 2013.
  • “What is a Compendium? Figuration and the Question of the Book in Theory-Writing,” Theory Session, Centre for Theory and Criticism, University of Western Ontario. October 26, 2012.
  • “The Pharmakon of Technology: Bernard Stiegler’s Technics and Time, Volume 1,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Kitchener, Ontario. September 23, 2011.

Public Presentations, Colloquia, and Invited Lectures

  • Panel Discussant on Judith Butler’s The Force of Nonviolence. Anabaptists and Philosophy Roundtable Lecture Series: April 11th 2024. Full Session Video.
  • “Power, Breath, and Violence.” A response to Maria José de Abreu’s The Charismatic Gymnasium. Connaught Initiative / Entangled Worlds book event. University of Toronto. February 28th 2022. [Invited]
  • “Conspiracy Theories and Religion” Cathedral Chats Interview. Christ Church Cathedral. Hamilton, Ontario. December 8th 2021. [Invited]
  • “Methodological Considerations in Religious Studies,” Guest Lecture for Dr. Jennifer Otto’s seminar “Methods in Religious Studies,” University of Lethbridge. February 24, 2021. [Invited]
  • “Religious Studies and Normativity,” Guest Lecture for Dr. Dana Hollander’s seminar “Issues in the Study of Religions.” Religious Studies, McMaster University. December 9, 2020. [Invited]
  • “Political Theology and Dissociation: A Response to Malinda Berry.” Theology and Peacebuilding Consultation. Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. March 10, 2020. [Invited]
  • “Mennonites and Philosophy: A Brief History,” Niagara Anabaptist Colloquium. Organized by Michael Driedger. Brock University. February 21, 2020. [Invited]
  • “A Peace Church in a Culture War? Secular, Philosophical, and Political Mennonite Social Critique,” Public lecture series organized by Jonathan Seiling. Respondent: Carol Penner. Grace Mennonite Church, St. Catharines, Ontario. February 1, 2019. [Invited]
  • “Educating for Vision between Suspicion and Sympathy,” concluding remarks at Board of Governors Retreat, Conrad Grebel University College. November 24, 2018. [Retreat Co-organizer]
  • “Power, Silence, and Naming: A Response to Lydia Neufeld Harder,” Public Lecture and Book Launch. Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre. Toronto, Ontario. June 15, 2018. [Invited]
  • Introductory overview and discussion moderator for the launch of Kyle Gingerich Hiebert, The Architectonics of Hope. Sheptytsky Institute, Toronto, Ontario. March 6, 2018. [Invited]
  • “Dispossessing and Repossessing the Self,” a response to P. Travis Kroeker’s Messianic Political Theology and Diaspora Ethics: Essays in Exile. Graduate Student Symposium, McMaster University, Religious Studies. Hamilton, Ontario. February 13, 2018. [Event Organizer].