What do we humans have in common amid our differences in ethnicity, class, gender, and religion? What bond connects us to each other, to the creatures of the cosmos, and to the source of life, beyond the desire to imitate, love, and possess the other, which is often an illusion or mirror in which we lose ourselves in infinite projections of libido and thought? The Power and the Potency explores four diverse but connected approaches to “the common” to account for how this dimension of human, cosmic, and divine intersubjectivity is configured: the ruins of the modern political project; anthropology and the mimetic; decolonial studies and practices; apophasis and “nothingness.”

Carlos Mendoza-Álvarez is a Dominican priest and internationally renowned theologian, examining issues of oppression, violence, and resistance. Recently, he taught as a tenured professor at Boston College from 2021-2025 and has served on the Board of Directors of Concilium.

Francis Boccuzzi studies systematic and fundamental theology, with a focus on how decolonial thought should inform both political theology and comparative theology, at Boston College.

Nathan Wood-House is assistant professor of theology, Alvernia University. He holds a Ph.D. from Boston College in systematic theology and theological ethics. His work engages Black liberation and political theologies, cultural critique, and decolonial studies as rich resources for dismantling racism, coloniality, and capitalism, and building abolitionist communities and futures.

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