What is Ideology? A Conversation with Mark Shiffman and James Matthew Wilson

In his new book, "What is Ideology?", political theorist Mark Shiffman studies the history of the concept and identifies it as a distinctly modern phenomenon. Shiffman argues that ideological thinking attempts to subject reality to a narrow and reductive schema in order to produce a redemptive social-political order and engineer a new type of human being.
Mark Shiffman discusses these topics with poet and cultural critic James Matthew Wilson. They trace the history of the term ideology, discuss its deforming effects on political life and the soul, and suggest how “non-ideological thinking” can be restored by drawing on resources from the classical and Christian traditions of philosophy, theology, art, and literature.
To point towards an escape from ideological thinking, Shiffman engages a diverse array of thinkers, from Thomas Hobbes and Karl Marx, to John Adams and Antonio Gramsci, to Ralph Ellison and Hannah Arendt.
This event took place on May 2, 2024 at the University Club of Chicago, and was presented by the Lumen Christi Institute.