Thomas Sojer

Doctoral student / research associate

CONTACT

Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät der Universität Erfurt / Professur für Philosophie (Philosophy)

Postfach (P.O.B.) 90 02 21, D-99105 Erfurt / MG 3 (Villa Martin), Nordhäuser Str. 63, D-99089 Erfurt

thomas.sojer@uni-erfurt.de

RESEARCH PROJECT | DISSERTATION

My research project explores micropolitics of reading, i.e., the transformational promise in practices altering the way one is reading oneself and world. Here, I focus on the writings of Simone Weil (1909–1943) and her concept of lecture (fr., reading). Against this backdrop, I apply traditional techniques of tropological exegesis. The umbrella term ‘tropology’ historically summons practices in different religious traditions that apply a performative hermeneutics of sacred text: This is, the meaning of divine text discloses reality in the way the text affects, is lived out, and turns out embodied in the reader’s life and history. Considering Simone Weil’s transformational concept of lecture, I investigate the relationship between, on the one hand, textual shifts in meaning when applying sacred tropes, and, on the other hand, performative shifts in action when exercising tropological exercises. For Simone Weil, applying sacred text, especially biblical tropes, provides textual instruments to shift thought in a way to encounter reality in human life aiming at the sacred as the fugitive concreteness in everyday life rather than an abstract concept of God.

OTHER RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Knowledge production and affect ecologies in mystical writing
  • Artistic Research and Theopoetics, focusing on performance art and photography/visual cultures
  • Relationship between Political Theology and Political Theory
  • Philosophies of Love