Cadell Last is a writer, philosopher, and the founder of Philosophy Portal, an online education platform focused on teaching the foundational philosophical discourses of the modern world. He joined me for a discussion about his new course on Christian Atheism, which starts on 20 October, and features guest lecturers including Peter Rollins and Slavoj Žižek.
Combining live lectures, discussions and publications, Cadell’s online courses offer a way to engage seriously and in depth with renowned thinkers, writers and researchers from inside and outside the walls of traditional academia, and in the emerging milieu of ‘underground theory’.
We discuss the meaning of the ‘atheist turn’ and the differences between Christian and scientific atheism; the future of underground theory; and how Cadell’s roots in the traditional academic sciences led him to set up his own online teaching platform.
Reading recommendations from Cadell Last
Cadell and I spent some time discussing Logic for the Global Brain, the latest collection of essays he edited for Philosophy Portal. It contains some really fascinating and provocative essays from writers across the ‘underground theory’ scene. Cadell says:
Logic for the Global Brain is for people are interested in learning how Philosophy Portal approaches Hegel’s Science of Logic. The rest I’d recommend for an entry point into both materials and thinkers that will be central in the Christian Atheism course.
He reccomends two books by or featuring Slavoj Žižek: 2024’s Christian Atheism: How To Be A Real Materialist and Religion, Psychoanalysis, Marxism, which also features the likes of Peter Rollins, Julie Reshe and others. You can find a PDF of that one over here. If you download that, please consider picking up a few more of the fantastic Everyday Analysis pamphlets, which include Rollins’ The Profane Temple and Žižek’s pamphlet on ChatGPT.
Philosophy Portal’s course on Christian Atheism starts on 20 October. Find out how to sign up for the course. Even if the idea of joining a full course isn’t your thing, I’d highly recommend subscribing to Philosophy Portal on YouTube. In the podcast, Cadell mentions an interview that’s key to the upcoming course, with Duane Roussell Mark Gerard Murphy.
There’s another one just with Murphy here, and plenty more free content on this topic and a wealth of others, as Cadell interviews thinkers and writers from across the political and intellectual spectrum (you might even recognise one or two faces).
That’s it for now, but we’ll be back before the end of October. Until then, thanks for listening! Take care of each other.
-Bram, Glasgow, October 2024
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“SCUM will keep on destroying, looting, fucking-up and killing until the money-work system no longer exists.” - Valerie Solanas, S.C.U.M. Manifesto, 1967
Episode 28: Cadell Last - Christian Atheism