Jon Ivan Gill's idea of ultimate reality is outside of any faith tradition, attesting to the fact that the idea of God is not the prisoner of religious worship (or that God is more than religion or religious worship).
Jon is available to teach either one on one and/or in classrooms several intersections of philosophy and religion that he has either learned or created himself. Please contact Dalia Lapiedra for more information.
Come and check out the latest cutting edge papers from Jon and established scholars and students on philosophy of religion, theology, and other related topics. Also, be sure to check back for Jon's weekly Wordpress blogs about everything from philosophy to art.
Feel free to contact Jon or please email and he will be in touch shortly.
Telephone: 773-655-0395
E-mail: jon@jonivangill.com
Current Snapshot:
Jon's edited volume entitled Toward Afrodiasporic and Afrofturist Philosophies of Religion, was released April 14, 2022 through Wipf and Stock. The text hosts the work of Jon's former students in the religion department of Pomona and Ptizer Colleges (Claremont Colleges) grappling with the usefulness of the structures of classical and neoclassical philosophy of religion for the insights of Afrofuturism, African philosophy, and Africana philosophy. The writers stay close to the aesthetic productions of the diaspora of the region now commonly known as "Africa," such as music, poetry and visual art as they forge towards a redefinition of philosophy of religion that seriously grapples with the various religions and quasi-religions (very broadly defined) produced by self-identifying descendants of the various nations of the continent. Order the text here: https://www.amazon.com
Jon first monograph with Routledge entitled Underground Rap as Religion: A Theopoetic Examination of a Process Aesthetic Religion, the second installment in Routledge's Studies in Hip-Hop and Religion series, edited by Monica R. Miller and Anthony B. Pinn, is available in hardcover (2019), paperback (2021), and and E-book (2019). Order the text now at: https://www.amazon.com
Jon appeared in the Palgrave Handbook to Radical Theology, edited by Jordan Miller and Christopher Rodkey. This text is the first comprehensive collection of the subfield of radical theology to date, featuring articles by Robert Saler, Benji Rolsky, Thomas J.J. Altizer, and others. Jon's chapter explores hip-hop as a "silent partner of radical theology. The chapter is written in a playfully thoughtful manner, and progressive. Investigate it here: https://www.palgrave.com
Jon has also written a short piece entitled "Ancestors Change Constantly: Subversive Religious Colonial Deconstruction in the Religion of Black Panther," which was published in the Journal for Religion and Film in April of this year. This was a series of papers on Black Panther by scholars such as Ken Derry (University of Toronto), Stanley Talbert(Union Theological Seminary), Daniel White Hodge(North Park University), and others given at the 2017 meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Boston, Massachusetts. The authors strove to invent something novel in this multi-authored, semi-casual academic response to the phenomenon that is Black Panther. Jon's piece can be read here: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu
A panel on the Marvel Comics Netflix series Luke Cage of which Jon was a part at the 2016 meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta Georgia published a co-authored piece on the intersections of religion, culture, and Afro-diasporic existentialism. The piece is called "Bulletproof Love: Luke Cage and Religion," and was published in the Journal for Religion, Film, and Media. Along with Jon, the other authors are Daniel White Hodge (North Park University), Ken Derry (University of Toronto), Stanley Talbert (Union Theological Seminary), Laurel Zwissler (University of Toronto), and Matthew Cressler (College of Charleston). Read it here: http://jrfm.eu/index
Please check out Jon's article on Tillich, Whitehead, and underground hip-hop, published in the Summer 2016 Bulletin of the esteemed North American Paul Tillich Society. The paper is entitled "Grounds of Being Becoming: The Possibility of Tillichian-Inspired Process Theology as Displayed by Underground Rap." Read it here: http://www.napts.org
2016 was a busy year for Jon, who performs hip-hop under the moniker Gilead7. In March of the year, he released a project with MC/producer Phantom Thrett of Pomona, Ca. and producer Dr. Strangelove of London, England. The three formed a lo-fi experimental hip-hop esque group called "Crystal Radio," and the cassette album, released by I Had An Accident Records, holds the same name. The indelible limited release flew off of the shelves, but a few can still be purchased here: http://ihadanaccidentrecords.com/ Take a visit there and cue it up!
Also, Jon teamed partnered with Southern California instrumentalist Subtrax for a vinyl album entitled "Peaces of War." Over Surtax's 90's-influenced dark boom bap beats, Gilead7 articulates Whiteheadian multiplicity through an array of topics ranging from social oppression to the uniqueness of the underground hip-hop movement. Peaces of War was released by Echoes of Oratory Muzik (US) and New Records (UK). The vinyl is available at several quality retailers, as well as digitally via stores such as Amazon.com and iTunes. Take a listen here: https://eoomuzik.com/
Visit the site, stay a while, see what's new on Jon's Wordpress, and don't forget to contact Jon for the best in philosophy, theology, or art.