Black Telos
Initiative Director, Kenneth D. Johnson
Black Telos looks to ignite discussion about social, intellectual, and cultural traditions that concern Black Americans, Africans, and the African diaspora.
We honor the intellectual traditions of the journal Telos, which its founder, Paul Piccone, its publisher, Mary Piccone, and its editor emeritus, Russell A. Berman, have kept alive and expanded. We have now been invited by the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute (TPPI) to continue these efforts with a focus on the past, present, and future conditions of Black Americans in the United States, and also to extend that intellectual scope to include African-descended people globally.
In the special issue of Telos discussing the intellectual contributions of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fifty years after his death (No. 182, Spring 2018), initiative director Kenneth D. Johnson identified King’s contribution as being squarely situated in the tradition of American philosophy, especially that of Boston Personalism, which in turn shaped his ethical outlook, piety, and activism. We hope to continue our engagement with the larger Telos circle by revisiting these and other themes, as well as by providing comment on contemporary concerns in the hope of healing what ails us. In doing so, we seek to overlap with other TPPI initiatives.
Topics will include the market and the state, the presence of religion in society and politics, the postsecular turn in philosophy, and the continuing relevance of political theology and its manifestations in early American history, beginning with the colonial period. We observe that many American political elites remain in a state of shock over the conduct of the current federal administration and have been unable to recover their earlier political health and vigor. Meanwhile, Black Americans continue to demonstrate increasing internal ideological diversity that portends unpredictable cultural and political outcomes. Conditions of African-descended people external to the United States, specifically the nations and peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, are likewise entering a new phase, with both crisis and opportunity for millions of people, which in turn may affect the futures of African Americans—and all other Americans as well. We plan to provide an assortment of interviews, essays, book reviews, and podcasts on these topics. We invite you to join us for the journey.