Publications

Current Projects

• Social Accountability
• Critique of Conspiracism
• Ontologies of Violence
• Postsecular History
• Mennonite Studies

Books

3. Critique of Conspiracism. Conspiracy Theories Series. London: Routledge, under contract, projected 2024-2025.

2. Ontologies of Violence: Deconstruction, Pacifism, and Displacement. Political and Public Theologies Series no. 4. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming 2023.

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.)

• Interviews
  • “Histories of the Postsecular,” Anabaptist Historians (Nov 2021).
  • “Can we get past the past?” Department for the Study of Religion Communications, University of Toronto (April 2022).
  • “Postsecular History,” New Books Network (July 2022).
• Reviews
  • Review by Paul Doerksen. Mennonite Quarterly Review 96 (October 2022): 608-610. (PDF)
• Launch Symposium: hosted by the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre on March 2, 2022. Recording available here, and edited proceedings detailed below:

Journal Symposium

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

• Travis Kroeker, “Postsecular History or Figural Messianism?”
• Pamela Klassen, “Time Immemorial, Here and Now.”
• Jennifer Otto, “Postsecular Entanglement.”
• Maxwell Kennel, “Beyond the Postsecular?”

Journal Special Issue

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

• Maxwell Kennel, “Introduction: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Mennonite Political Theology.” (Open Access Link)
• Susanna Guenther Loewen, “The Personal is Political: The Politics of Liberation in Mennonite-Feminist Theologies.”
• Daniel Shank Cruz, “Mennonite Speculative Fiction as Political Theology.”
• Russell Johnson, “Building Peace in a Culture War: Christian Witness in a Polarized Society.”
• Hans Harder, “Between Bourgeois Existence and Violence,” (1979). Introduction by Maxwell Kennel. Translated by Vic Thiessen.

Research Articles (Peer Reviewed)

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

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

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

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

• Listed on the Mennonite/s Writing in Canada Bibliography.
• Winner of the 2020 Julian Gwyn Essay Prize in Baptist and Anabaptist History and Thought at the Acadia Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. “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). Cited here.

4. “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). Cited here.

3. “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)

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

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

Edited Manuscript

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) (PDF).

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Non-Peer Reviewed Contributions

“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

“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).

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Select Review Essays

“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.

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Media

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

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Select Book Reviews

• Outlasting the Weather, Patrick Friesen, Journal of Mennonite Studies 40.2 (2022): 228-230.
• Secular Nonviolence and the Theo-Drama of Peace, Layton Boyd Friesen, Mennonite Quarterly Review 96 (October 2022): 606-608.
• Hope in a Secular Age, David Newheiser. Literature & Theology 36.1 (March 2022): 133–135.
• Recovering from the Anabaptist Vision, Journal of Mennonite Studies 39 (2021): 247-249.
• Queering Mennonite Literature, Daniel Shank Cruz, Religion & Literature 52.2 (2020): 164-167.
• “Apocalypse and Politics” a review of Apokalypse und Politik by Jacob Taubes, Telos 192 (Fall 2020): 192-194.
• Another Finitude, Agata Bielik-Robson, Reading Religion/American Academy of Religion-online (2020).
• Apocalyptic Political Theology by Thomas Lynch, Reading Religion/American Academy of Religion-online (2019).
• Critique as Social Practice by Robin Celikates, Symposium/CSCP-Online (2019).
• The Architectonics of Hope: Violence, Apocalyptic, and the Transformation of Political Theology by Kyle Gingerich Hiebert (PDF), Journal of Mennonite Studies 36 (2018): 314-316. Cited in this article (PDF).
• At the Heart of Reason by Claude Romano, Symposium/CSCP-Online (2017).
• Chosen Nation: Mennonites and Germany in a Global Era by Benjamin Goossen, Reading Religion/American Academy of Religion-online (2017).
• Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology, by A. James Reimer, Conrad Grebel Review 34.1 (Winter 2016): 102-104.

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Research Presentations

• “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.

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Public Presentations, Colloquia, and Invited Lectures

• “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 28^th 2022.
• “Conspiracy Theories and Religion” Cathedral Chats Interview. Christ Church Cathedral. Hamilton, Ontario. December 8^th 2021.
• “Methodological Considerations in Religious Studies,” Guest Lecture for Dr. Jennifer Otto’s seminar “Methods in Religious Studies,” University of Lethbridge. February 24, 2021.
• “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.
• “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]