SR4257

WHY CORNEL WEST MATTERS: PROTECTING DEMOCRACY, AND POLITICAL THEOLOGY: Cornel West's 2024 presidential run has been highly controversial for mainstream media, political parties and voters unfamiliar with his religio/political orientation. Why does this matter? First, West has been consistent throughout his religious (vocational)/academic/public intellectual career. We will trace his career and his long-held convictions through his writings, and public lectures. I am interested in West's grounding which is the Black Social Gospel movement or the "tradition" as it is described often. As the starting point, we can grapple with nihilism in America, neofascism and neoliberalism as religio/political philosophical constructs and points of departure and our attempt to uncover these ideologies, our contemporary leanings and capitalistic addictions. By addictions I can summarize as the political economy. The political economy exists without moral and ethical foundations. What is more, we will discuss and debate the grave reality of the prison industrial complex as it continues to intersect with many local, state, and federal laws and policies.

Institutional