Zeit: 7.-9. Oktober 2026

Ort: Freie Universität Berlin, Silberlaube, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, Raum K 23/27

The question of heresy seems to be a problem that is intrinsic to theology, or, at most, the studies of religion. However, if we assume that religious phenomena and theological reasonings react to and elaborate on social and historical experiences, we can also suppose that structures of heresy, orthodoxy and dogmatism can be found not only within social phenomena considered strictly belonging to religion.

Specifically, heretical movements of thought were found in certain argumentative practices in philosophy: According to the dominant conceptions of argumentation, an argument always supposes one concept. This concept is more or less general or established. It grounds the path of reasoning. It also leads to the conclusions. The employment of metaphors, images and thought experiments is situated at the periphery of that which is commonly comprehended as being eminently argumentative and rational.

In an even broader sense, it can be assumed that radical social critique is faced with the dilemma of having to operate with the tools of thought, the intellectual means of production so to say, that are provided by the dominant society. Just like the religious heretic, critical thought has to rearrange these tools without falling into the trap of reproducing hegemonic structures of thought that, at the same time, legitimise the existing order.

Therefore, it is no coincidence that thinkers who questioned dominant thought patterns often found inspiration in religious heretics. Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno and Furio Jesi, for example, showed a particular interest in Marrano theology — a paradigmatic example of a scenario in which oppression, apostasy, and the inversion of dogmatic religious ideas and practices interplay. Others, such as Raoul Vaneigem and Jacques Rancière, have considered heresy to be an 'extravagant' life force capable of dissolving the divine by identifying with it. This has played an important role in Western history.

This workshop is dedicated to counter-practices of thought, which we have designated as heretical on account of their continuity and/or structural analogy with religious and/or theological heretical practices and approaches. We will explore the problem of heretical argumentation bringing together international scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds. A generous grant by the Dahlem Humanities Center made it possible to reunite the organizational team that has been collaborating on the topic of Heretical Argumentation since 2024: https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/dhc/forschung/dahlem-junior-host-program/hosts-and-guests-2026/index.html

The organizational team:

Camila Joselevich Aguilar holds a Ph.D. in History, an M.A. in History, and a B.A. in Classical Studies from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). She is a professor in the Intercultural Development and Management program at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at UNAM, and has been a member of the Mexican Society for the Study of Religions (SMER) since 2014. Her research focuses on the relations between religion, discourse, and power, both in Antiquity and in contemporary societies, specialized on the construction of dissent and heresy in early Christianity, specifically the literature between Paul of Tarsus and the heresiologists of the 2nd century. She coordinated the Research Projects (PIFFyL-UNAM) “Heresiologies: Theological-Political Narratives on Dissent in the West” (2019-2023) and “Early Christianity and Political Theology: Interdisciplinary Studies” (2012-2019). She has published nationally and internationally (Mexico, Colombia, Spain) on the early Christian rhetoric of power and heresiology, both in antiquity and in the contemporary Latin American context.

Federico E. López holds a PhD in Philosophy from the National University of La Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina), where he works as a full-time research professor. He teaches classes on the theory of argumentation and epistemology and directs a research project on the challenges posed by new argumentation technologies for the practice of giving, asking for, and examining reasons. He has edited several collective volumes on current topics in epistemology from the pragmatist tradition (Regreso a la experiencia, 2014, in collaboration with Cristina Di Gregori; Conocimiento, Arte, y Valoración, 2016, in collaboration with Victoria Sánchez and Daniel Busdygan; Contagios y contiendas, 2021, in collaboration with Cristina Di Gregori)

Tatiana Staroselsky teaches Contemporary Philosophy and Logic at the National University of La Plata (Argentina) and is a researcher at the Center for Research in Philosophy (CIeFi) at the same University. She holds a PhD in Philosophy, has been a doctoral and postdoctoral fellow of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and has conducted research stays at Humboldt University in Berlin and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service and the Macro Network. Her work has focused on the philosophy of Walter Benjamin and the problem of aestheticization, and traces, currently, the possibilities of an audiovisual turn in philosophy and the potential of the video essayism.

Stephanie Graf is a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for the Scientific Study of Religions at the Freie Universität Berlin. She studied International Development, Latin American Studies and Philosophy in Vienna, Mexico City and Jerusalem and holds a PhD in Political and Moral Philosophy. Having written a monography on Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamins Inverse Theology (Como el papel secante con la tinta, Gedisa 2022), she is especially interested in the transfer between theological and philosophical realms of thought. Her current research focuses on Critical Theory and Aesthetics, Political Theology, German-Jewish thought, antisemitism and religion and coloniality.

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