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Tim Howles

@timhowles.bsky.social

9.3K followers 2.1K following 580 posts

Research Fellow, University of Oxford Theology, philosophy, ethics, politics, environmental humanities Associate Director @LSRIOxford Anglican Priest https://www.theology.ox.ac.uk/people/revd-dr-timothy-howles

www.theology.ox.ac.uk

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · May 9

What should the Left do with the work of Bruno Latour?

logisticsofreligionblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/17/r...

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 14h

Reading tonight:

Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

“Toward a Philosophy of Error in Science”
Douglas Allchin

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

Here is my interview on Golding's work, including Lord of the Flies: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lyx...

The Work of William Golding with Tim Howles

YouTube video by Hermitix Podcast

www.youtube.com

Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

12. This installation works because it uses the human language of love as a way-in to considering Christian love of God.

It is appropriate that it stands above the door, for the work is an entry-point (perhaps in this case for those who wouldn’t usually cross the threshold of a place of worship).

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

11. Or consider: "even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

10. This seems to be almost valentine card language.

And yet here too, there is a subtle indexing to tradition. For Christianity too has its sentiment of extravagant joy. Consider the gesture of the woman who wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair, as recounted in Matthew 26. Oddly transgressive.

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

9. And the content itself?

It read: "I felt you. And I know that you loved me."

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

8. Of course, pink or rose is used in church liturgy for the (less-solemn) middle Sundays of Advent and Lent - Laetare Sunday - that indicates respite or relief from discipline, even a certain playfulness that is licensed by Christianity at the time when we confront our sin in the most severe way.

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

7. It uses the conventional components of light and coloured glass. The pink of the words thus seems connected to the stained glass above it, as if the neon has its source in the rose window, or as if the fragments of glass have spilled over somehow into what is beneath.

Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

6. There is nothing in the iconography or words that is overtly Christian. Emin is herself an avowed agnostic.

But I think the installation makes suggestive connections with the ecclesial space in which it is set.

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

5. The installation represents the magical appearance of market modernity in the midst of a sacred space. It is this disruption of tradition that I think is most interesting.

Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

4. Its effect is evidently not subtle.
Our reaction might include words like: gaudy, flamboyant, tacky. Such a display might be expected not at a church, but maybe ... at Piccadilly Circus? at a fairground? at a trailer park? or perhaps something more tawdry and liminal, like a red light district?

Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

3. The words spelt out in pink neon are: “I felt you and I knew you loved me”. They are written in the shape of the artist's own handwriting and then transferred into this new form of pink neon tubes.

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

2. This work was installed above the west door (that is, the main entrance) of the Anglican Cathedral of Liverpool. It was commissioned by the Cathedral Chapter as the cathedral’s contribution to Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture 2008.

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

1. In response to the furore over the graffiti on the walls at Canterbury Cathedral, here is an alternative case-study: an artistic installation that is transgressive to its site and yet also thoughtfully attuned to its context: Tracey Emin, 'For You’ at Liverpool Cathedral.

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 1d

First look at the BBC's new Lord of the Flies TV series.

Jack Thorne – of Adolescence and The Hack – has adapted the classic William Golding book into four hour-long episodes, date yet to be announced.

www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/lor...

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 2d

Published today:

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 2d

"After all, what would be the value of the passion for knowledge if it resulted only in a certain amount of knowledgeableness and not [...] in the knower's straying afield of himself?"

Part of the oration by Gilles Deleuze at the funeral of his friend Michel Foucault, 1984

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Reposted by Tim Howles

Peter Adamson @histphilosophy.bsky.social · 2d

I'm more than halfway through this interesting #podcast series on technology ethics, from my colleague Sven Nyholm @svennyholm.bsky.social and John Danaher. Highly recommended!

technologyethicspod.wordpress.com

#ethics #aiethics #technology #philsky

Technology Ethics Podcast

A podcast-based introduction to the philosophy and ethics of technology

technologyethicspod.wordpress.com

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 2d

"The Cambridge Companion to Christology"
Timothy J. Pawl and Michael L. Peterson
www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 2d

Doris Lessing’s reaction to winning the Nobel Prize in 2007 is always worth a rewatch …
youtu.be/vuBODHFBZ8k

British author Doris Lessing reacts to Nobel win

YouTube video by ReutersLC

youtu.be

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Tim Howles @timhowles.bsky.social · 6d

Today I have had some time to read the very beautiful short story, “Elephant”, by Raymond Carver, one the last pieces he wrote before his death

Reposted by Tim Howles

Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 7d

From a Watershed to the Parting of the Waters: A Note on Michel Foucault and Peter Brown progressivegeographies.com/2025/10/05/f...

From a Watershed to the Parting of the Waters: A Note on Michel Foucault and Peter Brown

Back in November 2014, while I was researching Foucault’s Last Decade, I wrote “A minor note on Michel Foucault and Peter Brown: From a watershed to the parting of the waters” for th…

progressivegeographies.com

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Reposted by Tim Howles

German Embassy London @uk.diplo.de · 9d

35 years ago, Germany was reunified.

German reunification celebrations in front of the Reichstag on 3 October 1990

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Reposted by Tim Howles

Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 8d

A very interesting CFP for an edited book on "Ludwik Fleck and the Historiography of Science: The Theory of Thought Styles and Thought Collectives at the Centennial" periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/tr...

Call for Chapters in Springer book: Ludwik Fleck and the Historiography of Science | Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science

periodicos.ufmg.br

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