After completing his undergraduate degree in Philosophy with Theatre Studies, Duane Williams studied for an MA in
Mysticism and Religious Experience at the University of Kent where he graduated with a distinction. He then
went on to complete his PhD in Theology and Religious Studies at the same
institution. Duane then worked for many years as an hourly paid lecturer at the
University of Kent teaching on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. His
first book was called, The Linguistic
Christ (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2011), and his latest book is called, Language and Being: Heidegger's Linguistics
(Bloomsbury, 2017). Duane also co-edited the book, Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy (Routledge, 2017). He
is a trustee of the Meister Eckhart Society and chief-editor of the
international, peer-reviewed journal, Medieval
Mystical Theology (Routledge: Taylor and Francis). He is a co-facilitator
of, The Association for Continental
Philosophy of Religion as well as series editor with his colleague, Steven
Shakespeare, for the Reframing
Continental Philosophy of Religion book series with Rowman and Littlefield.
Duane has published articles on a range of figures and topics,
including, Marcel Proust, William Blake, Martin Heidegger, Meister Eckhart, Zen
Buddhism, Biblical Exegesis, Phenomenological Hermeneutics, and Apophatic
Theology. Duane joined the Theology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies
Department at Liverpool Hope in 2012. He teaches across all three disciplines,
but most of his work in the department is focused on philosophy. The subjects
he currently teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level include: epistemology, existentialism, philosophical
aesthetics, meta-ethics, applied ethics, Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, apophatic theology, philosophy of religion, and
phenomenological hermeneutics. Duane has organized and hosted international
conferences at Liverpool Hope University, and continues to be a contributor at
other academic conferences.
Academic Interests:
Areas of academic interest include: Mystical Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Indic Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, Zen Buddhism, Philosophy of Language, Hermeneutics, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Aesthetics, Poetics, and Symbolism.
Academic Qualifications:
PhD Theology and Religious Studies (University of Kent, 2006).
MA (Distinction) Mysticism and Religious Experience (University of Kent, 1999).
BA (Hons) Philosophy with Theatre Studies (University of Wolverhampton, 1995).
Professional Associations:
Chief-Editor of Medieval Mystical Theology.
Trustee of The Eckhart Society.
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Co-Facilitator of the Association for the Continental Philosophy of Religion.
Honorary Member of the Temenos Academy.
Member of the Mystical Theology Network.
Member of the Society for Ricœur Studies.
Publications:
'Two Masters Negating the Negation: A Comparative Study of Zhaozhou Congshen and Meister Eckhart, Medieval Mystical Theology, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2022.
'Opposition is True Friendship: William Blake on Individuality, Plurality, and Community', Temenos Academy Review, 24, 2021.
'Eternity Glimpsed and Time Regained: Marcel Proust's Ontological Time', in Literature and Modern Time: Technological Modernity; Glimpses of Eternity; Experiments with Time (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
'Prisons of Law and Brothels of Religion: William Blake's Christian Anarchism', in Essays in Anarchism and Religion, Vol. 2 (Stockholm University Press, 2018)
Language and Being: Heidegger's Linguistics (Bloomsbury Press, 2017)
'The Finger and the Moon: Language, Reality, and Interpretation in Zen Buddhism', in, Buddhism and Linguistics: Theory and Philosophy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
'Eckhart's Why and Heidegger's What: Beyond Subjectivistic Thought to Groundless Ground', in, Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy (Routledge, 2017)
'Feminist Theology and Meister Eckhart's Transgendered Metaphor', in Feminist Theology, Vol. 24, No. 3, May 2016
'Meister Eckhart's Christ and Medieval Biblical Exegesis', Medieval Mystical Theology, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2015.
'The Why and What of Philosophy of Religion: Towards a New Hermeneutic Phenomenology for Pedagogical Practice, in Journal of Dharma: Religion and Rationality, Vol. 40, No. 4, Oct.-Dec. 2015, pp. 443-462
'An Apology for Language', Temenos Academy Review, 17, 2014.
'Between the Apophatic and the Cataphatic: Heidegger's Tautophatic Mystical Linguistics', in Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology: Between Transcendence and Immanence (Ashgate, 2013)
The Linguistic Christ (Edwin Mellen Press, 2011). Foreword by, Dr. Mary Anne Perkins.
'Eckhart and the Varieties of Nothing', in Medieval Mystical Theology, ISSN 2046-5726, Vol. 20, 2011.
'Where a Silence is Said: The Ambiguities of Apophaticism', in Skepsi, ISSN 1758-2679, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2009.
Forthcoming Publications:
'The Eye With Which I See God Is The Same Eye With Which God Sees Me: Meister Eckhart on Divine Awareness', Medieval Mystical Theology, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2023.
'The Picture, the Frame, and the Crack: Representational Thinking and the Radicalization of Teaching as a Phenomenological Intentionality, in Educational Philosophy and Theory.
'A Monk, a Master, and a Dog: Negativity in Zen Buddhism's Mu Kōan, in Thinking About Nothing: Negation, Philosophy, and the Mystical (Routledge, 2025).
Talks and Papers:
'The Picture, the Frame, and the Crack: Representational Thinking and the Radicalization of Teaching as a Phenomenological Intentionality', Anthropology, Technology, and Education: Exploring the Cracks in Technological Systems (Ross Priory, University of Strathclyde, September 2023)
'The Eye With Which I See God Is The Eye With Which God Sees Me: Meister Eckhart On Divine Awareness' (The Eckhart Society Conference, Hoddesdon, 2022).
'Anthropology of Technology Symposium' (Brekstad, Norway, June 2022)
'Opposition is True Friendship: William Blake on Individuality, Plurality, and Community', (Conference on Friendship, Aloneness and Community, American College, Catholic University of Leuven, March 2019).
'Meister Eckhart on Prayer' (Creative and Progressive Prayer Series, St. Bride's Church, Liverpool, 2016)
'Accounts of Time in Martin Heidegger and Jiddu Krishnamurti' (Time on a Human Scale: Modernity and the Present in Europe, 1870-1930, Durham University, 2016)
'Meister Eckhart on Prayer' (Creative and Progressive
Prayer, St. Brides Church, Liverpool, April 2016)
'The Why and What of Philosophy of Religion: Towards a New Hermeneutic Phenomenology for Pedagogical Practice' (Dharma: Interface between the Secular and Sacred Conference, Christ's University, Bangalore, India, 2015)
'The Finger and the Moon: Language, Reality and Interpretation in Zen Buddhism' (Buddhism and Linguistics Colloquium, Liverpool, 2014)
'Meister
Eckhart's Christ and Medieval Biblical Exegesis' (The Eckhart Society
Conference, Hoddesdon, 2014)
'Eckhart's Why and Heidegger's What: Beyond Subjectivistic Thought to Groundless Ground' (Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Conference, Liverpool, 2014)
'Aristotle, Heidegger and the Architectonic Structure of Language' (Forum for European Philosophy and the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Liverpool, 2013)
'An Apology for Language' (Temenos Academy, London, 2013)
'Feminist Theology and Meister Eckhart's Transgendered Metaphor' (Feminist Theology: Facing Tradition Conference, Liverpool, 2013)
'Let Us Pray To God To Be Free Of God' (The World Community for Christian Meditation, London, 2012)
'The Visionary
Imagination of William Blake' (The Fintry Trust, Brook, Surrey, 2012)
'Poetic Madness and the Extinction of Personality' (Daimonic Imagination and Uncanny Intelligence Conference, Canterbury, 2011)
'Eckhart and the Varieties of Nothing' (The Eckhart Society Conference, London, 2010)
'The Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita' (The British Wheel of Yoga, Canterbury, 2009)
'The Negative Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius' (South East Institute of Theological Education, Canterbury, 2009)
'Teilhard De Chardin and the Scope of Vision' (The British Teilhard Association, London, 2006)