31 January 2010

Book: Minjung and Process: Minjung Theology in a Dialogue with Process Thought

Minjung theology is Korean political/liberation theology. Books (in English) about it are rather rare. In 2009, Hiheon Kim's "Minjung and Process: Minjung Theology in a Dialogue with Process Thought" was published by Peter Lang:

www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?vID=11735

Publisher's description: "This book reconstructs the legacy of Korean minjung theology by reformulating its essential ideas in a dialogue with process thought. In a minimal sense, this study is a theological reinterpretation of the doctrine of the minjung messiah, an idea which historically suffered from a misunderstanding that minjung theology created a 'messianic confusion' while replacing christology and soteriology by a radical anthropology. This erroneous conception occurred when the idea was placed within the philosophically dualistic framework of traditional doctrines in which the work of minjung is totally separated from the work of Christ. In order to avoid such a dualistic understanding, the author critically adopts process panentheism and makes minjung ideas more communicable and more comprehensive in current theological, religious, and philosophical debates. Beyond defending the idea of the minjung messiah, he also argues for an inclusive minjung hermeneutics that promotes the fundamental insight of minjung theology, in philosophical clarity. Through minjung hermeneutics, minjung theology expands its practical concern and overcomes the theoretical nihilism in postmodern studies."

Hiheon Kim received his PhD in 2007 from Claremont Graduate University (Philosophy of Religion and Theology programme). He served as a local pastor over ten years in Korea and the US and is now teaching at Hanshin University, Osan, Korea.

30 January 2010

CONF: Political and Legal Theology in Comparative Perspective

Conference "Political and Legal Theology in Comparative Perspective", co-sponsored by the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy and the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School, 55 Fifth Avenue at 12 Street, Suite 542, New York, 21-22 February 2010

www.cardozo.yu.edu/MemberContentDisplay.aspx?ccmd=ContentDisplay&ucmd=UserDisplay&userid=10374&contentid=14096&folderid=340

Political theology is a mode of inquiry that understands the modern period as incompletely secularized. Theology has been adapted, reworked, and translated for secular use, but its hold on the political imagination remains strong. Although the Enlightenment and the rise of western political liberalism attempted to keep the public, political sphere completely secular while relegating religion to the private sphere, political theology argues that modern political systems have reoccupied the space that was once held by religious and theological systems. With the rise of political Islam abroad, and the increasing political power of the Christian Right in the United States, the exploration of the theological roots of the political imagination takes on great contemporary significance. Political theology, however, has been primarily concerned with ancient and medieval conceptions of the City of God and the theological polity, due to its links to western political nationalism after the fall of Christendom. In an age of political and religious globalization, there is a pressing need to bring non-Christian religions into these conversations.

Scholars have, for the most part, studied the impact of theology on our contemporary political commitments, but much less attention has been paid to the theological underpinnings of secular legal systems. Yet, a small but growing body of literature on legal theology has demonstrated that both in its origins and in its content, western law preserves and reoccupies spaces once held by God, revelation, prophets, and priests. The increasing presence of religion in the public square, both in the United States and abroad, has led to a rethinking of time-honored understandings of the relationship between religion, theology, and law. In an age in which political globalization has been accompanied by legal globalization, there is a need not only for disparate studies of political and legal theology, but to bring political theology and legal theology into productive conversation with one another. This conference aims to begin this new comparative and interdisciplinary conversation in political and legal theology.

Please note that this conference is not open to the public. Interested academics or students may want to contact the organizers, though, to see whether and how they can participate.

There will be one public panel on "American Exceptionalism and the Relevance of Political Theology in America", in the Moot Court Room, on 21 February, 6-8 pm (yes, that's a Sunday)

Panelists: Peter Berkowitz (Hoover Institution, Stanford), Paul Kahn (Yale Law School), Hendrik Hartog (History, Princeton), and Samuel Moyn (History, Columbia)

The concept of the qualitative uniqueness of America, known as American exceptionalism, dates back to Alexis de Tocqueville's nineteenth-century description of American democracy as "exceptional". American exceptionalism has been used both to describe and explain America's unique political, legal, social and religious landscapes. It has served as a justification of American foreign policy and America's frequent choice to act alone, rather than among the community of nations. American exceptionalism has been derided as a jingoist manifestation of American arrogance; it has been praised by proud Americans as an expression of their nation’s uniqueness. The term has been used neutrally by scholars attempting to compare America and other nations, and by those attempting to evaluate the validity of the expression. In recent decades, American exceptionalism has been re-examined by a number of scholars and thinkers, and has once again become a subject of heated debate in scholarship as well as public policy.

Claims of uniqueness and exceptionalism can be understood as secularized versions of claims to theological chosenness and uniqueness that lie in the foreground of American history, and the perennial quest to serve as a "city on a hill" or a "light among the nations". In this sense, American exceptionalism merits exploration in the context of political theology, a concept famously encapsulated by Carl Schmitt as the notion that all modern political concepts are secularized theological ones. In a forthcoming book, legal scholar Paul Kahn argues that a re-examination of Schmitt's concept of political theology and his associated understanding of sovereignty can be tremendously useful in a re-examination of American exceptionalism, and the continual tension in America between the rule of law and the concept of popular sovereignty. Panelists will address the nexus between American exceptionalism and the enduring relevance of political theology in contemporary American society.

Followed by a reception.

Please RSVP to: jewishlaw@yu.edu

28 January 2010

CFP: Walter Benjamin: Convergences of Aesthetics and Political Theology

An international conference organized by Universidad de Chile, Instituto de Humanidades/Universidad Diego Portales, Goethe Institut, and DAAD, to take place in Santiago de Chile, 20-22 October 2010

Call for papers: "Walter Benjamin: Convergences of Aesthetics and Political Theology"

With his stress on the constellation of art, religion, and politics, Walter Benjamin has become a key thinker for the contemporary debate on the role of religion in the public sphere. Benjamin placed philosophy – the practice of criticism – at the service of art, seeking to release a political and theological potential he called "messianic", far from every theocracy and fundamentalism.

Benjamin's urgent demand for the "politicization of art" as an antidote to the fascist "aesthetization of politics" is well known. The aim of this international conference is to understand and discuss the bridge between the aforementioned demand and the contemporary attempts, by many thinkers influenced by Benjamin, to "politicize theology", now understood as an antidote to the fundamentalist theologization of politics.

Proposals are welcomed for 20-30 minute papers on all topics relevant to the conference theme, including the following: The artwork's aura and its effacement: technical reproducibility or alterity of the absolute?; The crisis of experience; The concept of "profane illumination"; Language and the sacred; The Angel of History and "dialectics at a standstill"; Allegory and melancholy from the Trauerspiel to Baudelaire; Benjamin and the question of sovereignty; The Benjamin-Scholem dialogue; Kabbalah and Messianism; Benjamin and Political Theology

Papers on other relevant topics will also be considered. Conference languages are Spanish and English. The organizers will work with simultaneous translation during plenary sessions.

Please send an abstract of max. 600 words and a short bio to: conferenciabenjamin@gmail.com

Deadline: 15 April 2010

Early submissions are welcome. Notification of acceptance will be sent no later than 30 April 2010.

Confirmed international speakers: Hauke Brunkhorst (University of Flensburg), Gertrud Koch (Free University of Berlin), and Bettina Menke (University of Erfurt)

Conference Committee: Vanessa Lemm, Eduardo Sabrovsky, Miguel Vatter (all Universidad Diego Portales), Horst Nitschack, and Pablo Oyarzún (both Universidad de Chile)

For further information, please contact the organizers at the above e-mail address.

27 January 2010

Book: Bearing the Weight of Salvation: The Soteriology of Ignacio Ellacuría

Michael E. Lee, "Bearing the Weight of Salvation: The Soteriology of Ignacio Ellacuría" (Crossroad Publishing, April 2009), with a foreword by Gustavo Gutiérrez:

www.ipgbook.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=0824524217

Publisher's description: "Exploring the nature of Christian salvation, known as soteriology, and its relation to Christian action, this insightful account thoroughly discusses theologian and martyr Ignacio Ellacuría's perspectives on the character of Christian discipleship and controversies over liberation theology. Recognizing philosophical, Christological, and ecclesiological dimensions, the volume carefully analyzes the complexities of topics that include praxis as real discipleship, transforming realities and contesting orthodoxies, and the impact of Ellacuría's theological legacy."

Endorsements: "The outstanding work of Michael Lee goes to the source of Ellacuría's thought and, from there, tackles its different elements. He says with precision, 'This book takes [the] meeting of Ellacuría's martyrdom and apologetics as its starting point.' And so it is." (Gustavo Gutiérrez, University of Notre Dame)

"This book has numerous virtues, perhaps foremost among them that of making a difficult author, whose work has not been fully translated, accessible to an Anglophone readership. ... Will richly reward anyone interested in what the next generation of liberation theologians, in Latin and North America, will look like." (J. Matthew Ashley, University of Notre Dame)

Michael E. Lee is Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Fordham University.

26 January 2010

Book: Faith-Based War: From 9/11 to Catastrophic Success in Iraq

T. Walter Herbert, "Faith-Based War: From 9/11 to Catastrophic Success in Iraq" (Equinox, October 2009).

From the description on Amazon: "The Bush administration was prompted to invade Iraq by a religious vision that blinded them to the realities of the struggle against terror, and propelled them into moral and political catastrophe. The propaganda campaign that promoted the war, the choice of a self-defeating 'Shock and Awe' invasion, and the expanded torture program bear witness to a faith-based policy that violated democratic ideals and perverted religious truth. The White House embraced a version of Christian nationalism in which the president serves as the agent of God's of wrath to punish evildoers, in keeping with a tradition that descends from the Massachusetts Bay Puritans, who considered themselves a 'chosen people' occupying a 'promised land.' As native peoples resisted Puritan encroachment at the frontiers of expansion, they were marked as devils incarnate, fit for total destruction.

"A modern version of this imperialist vision was invoked on 9/11, when the social and political conditions giving rise to the terrorist atrocity were forgotten, and sanctimonious wrath against evildoers ruled the White House response. At the heart of this religious mythology stands the 'frontier hero,' who takes action when the 'not chosen' strike back against the advance guard of the 'chosen.' [...] The classic mythology of the American frontier allowed Christian militarists in the Religious Right of the Republican party to make common cause with broad sectors of the American public. They achieved predominant influence in the Bush White House, and in the future will seek to regain control over U.S. foreign policy."

www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=169

Reviews: "In trying to expose the flawed political theology that may indeed animate too much of American foreign policy, Herbert simply exchanges one troubling political theology for another. Offended by the Right's secularized 'city on a hill' of imperialism and cultural and economic hegemony, he embraces the Left's secularized 'city on a hill' of international social justice. Disturbed by the Right's politicized Jesus who endorses 'Christian Americanism,' he embraces the Left's politicized Jesus who advocates a new order of humanitarian sympathy." (Richard Gamble, "The American Conservative")

"Herbert's Faith-Based War is a fascinating and richly perceptive blend of social ethical, political, theological, and historical analysis on the moral problem of American empire. Showing the relevance of political theology, it builds to a stunning meditation on the contradictions of 'Christian empire' currently playing out in Iraq." (Gary Dorrien, Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University)

T. Walter Herbert is Professor Emeritus of English at Southwestern University.

Book: Tight Fists or Open Hands? Wealth and Poverty in Old Testament Law

David L. Baker, "Tight Fists or Open Hands? Wealth and Poverty in Old Testament Law" (Eerdmans, July 2009):

www.eerdmans.com/shop/product.asp?p_key=9780802862839

From the publisher's description: "Any Christian response to today's ever-growing problem of poverty around the globe must be firmly rooted in biblical teaching. While books on various aspects of wealth and poverty in the Old and New Testaments have been published, so far there has been no thorough study of Old Testament law on the topic. [...] Each section of Tight Fists or Open Hands? includes an extended conclusion that summarizes the main ideas, considers relationships with other biblical texts, and points to the significance of the laws for today's world."

From the description on christianbooks.com: "The global pandemic is overwhelming. The rich are becoming more – and more – wealthy, while the poor remain in rags and starving. David L. Baker [...] argues that the popular modes of theological thought dealing with poverty and wealth, Liberation Theology and Prosperity Doctrines, are either too simplistic or deceptively manipulate, or selectively choose biblical texts to support a pre-existing ideology. Baker stands against this use of Scripture believing that support of modern political ideologies cannot be legitimately turned into political theologies. [...]

"Old Testament Law, concerning the poor, can illuminate the ways in which material possessions should[,] and indeed can, be dealt with appropriately. He believes that the attitude toward the poor expressed in the New Testament is rooted in the Mosaic Law and that this Law teaches that God desires justice for everyone, not only the poor. The issue is the poor are in no position to deprive others of economic justice, and therefore the exhortations Liberation theologians tend to point out focus on obtaining justice only for the poor at the expense of others. Conversely, prosperity teachings are wrapped up inside their own interests and selfish morality believed to be the teaching of Scripture. Inevitably these create a theological justification for the hoarding of wealth."

David L. Baker is Senior Lecturer in Old Testament at Trinity Theological College, Perth.

23 January 2010

Book: Public Theology for a Global Society

Deirdre King Hainsworth and Scott R. Paeth (editors), "Public Theology for a Global Society: Essays in Honor of Max L. Stackhouse"
(Eerdmans, December 2009):

www.eerdmans.com/shop/product.asp?p_key=9780802865076

Publisher's description: "In these essays [...], leading Christian scholars consider the historical roots and ongoing resources of public theology as a vital element in the church's engagement with global issues. Public Theology for a Global Society explores the concept of public theology and the challenge of relating theological claims to a larger social and political context. The range of essays included here allows readers to understand public theology as both theological practice and public speech, and to consider the potential and limits of public theology in ecumenical and international networks.

"The essays begin by introducing the reader to the development of public theology as an area of study and to the historical interrelationship of religious, legal, and professional categories. The later essays engage the reader with emerging problems in public theology, as religious communities encounter shifting 'publics' that are being transformed by globalization and sweeping political and technological changes. The breadth and scholarship of Public Theology for a Global Society make this volume a fitting tribute to Stackhouse – a central figure in Christian ethics and pioneer in the church's study of globalization."

Deirdre King Hainsworth is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Director of the Center for Business, Religion and Public Life at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Scott R. Paeth is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University.

Book: What Makes a Good Church? Public Theology and the Urban Church

Elaine Graham and Stephen Lowe, "What Makes a Good Church? Public Theology and the Urban Church" (Darton, Longman and Todd, June 2009):

www.dltbooks.com/book_details.asp?bID=940&bc=0&sID=ALL&Type=B&cp=1

Publisher's description: "In its Faithful Cities report (2006), the [Anglican Archbishops'] Commission on Urban Life and Faith [of which both Graham and Lowe were members] identified the question 'What makes a good city?' as a key catalyst for thinking about the future of our cities and towns. In this groundbreaking work of practical theology, the authors [...] explore this question in depth, from historical, social, economic and spiritual perspectives and offer a vision for the long-term future of the 'good city'".

Elaine Graham is Grosvenor Research Professor at the University of Chester. Until October 2009, she was the Samuel Ferguson Professor of Social and Pastoral Theology at the University of Manchester. From 2005 to 2007, she served as President of the International Academy of Practical Theology.

Stephen Lowe retired from his position as suffragan Bishop of Hulme, in the Anglican Diocese of Manchester, in July 2009. From 2006, he was the Church of England's first Bishop for Urban Life and Faith. He also chaired its Urban Bishops Panel.

17 January 2010

Public lecture: The Primal Scenes of Political Theology

University of California at Davis, Davis Humanities Institute (DHI),
126 Vorhies Hall, 1st and A streets, Davis, California, USA,
21 January 2010, 4.00-5.30 pm

Public lecture by Jacques Lezra (Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish and Portuguese at New York University):
"The Primal Scences of Political Theology"

http://dhi.ucdavis.edu/?p=2987

"And earthly power doth then show likest God's / When mercy seasons justice." – William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice"

"This analogy is the very site of the theologico-political, the hyphen [trait d'union] or translation between the theological and the political." – Jacques Derrida, "Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question"

In "The Primal Scenes of Political Theology", Jacques Lezra will approach a cluster of urgent questions in contemporary political and cultural theory by reading Freud's readings of Schiller: Is there indeed a "trait d'union" between the theological and the political, marked (as Carl Schmitt and other proponents of the secularization thesis argue) somewhere in the period of early modernity? Which "early modernity" do we mean? And under what conditions can we approach it? What forms of cultural mediation determine the encounter between theology and politics for us today? And conversely: is our understanding of "cultural mediation" itself marked by the encounter between theology and politics in the early modern period?

This event is sponsored by the Graduate Program in Critical Theory, the Departments of English, German, Comparative Literature, Spanish and Portuguese, and the Early Modern Research Cluster.

For more information please contact Matthew Stratton (UC Davis): mstratton@ucdavis.edu

15 January 2010

CFP: Continental Philosophy of Religion

15th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture (ISRLC), at St Catherine's College, University of Oxford, England, 23-26 September 2010

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc2329/index.html

A panel on "Continental Philosophy of Religion" is to be organized for this conference.

The panel invites submissions which consider the turn to religion in recent continental philosophy and the implications this has for understandings of religion, reason, and spiritual practice. If philosophy is called, driven, or solicited to think its other, does this mean that philosophy itself is compelled by a religious dynamic? A particular focus will be on the debate around theological and dialectical accounts of materialism. What kind of thinking does justice to the passion of reason, the integrity of matter, and the injunctions of ethical and political commitment? Relevant thinkers and themes might include Jean-Luc Nancy, Radical Orthodoxy, Slavoj Žižek, Grace Jantzen, phenomenology (Henry, Chrétien, Lacoste, Marion), speculative realism/materialism. However, other relevant submissions will be considered.

The panel is being convened by the Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion:

www.hope.ac.uk/acpr

Panel leaders: Steven Shakespeare and Patrice Haynes (both Liverpool Hope University): shakess@hope.ac.uk, haynesp@hope.ac.uk

Short papers are invited for this panel; contributors should aim to deliver a 20-minute piece with 10 further minutes for questions and discussion. Please send the proposed title of your paper, with an abstract of not more than 500 words, to the convenors of the panel.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 30 March 2010

One of the keynote speakers at the conference will be Graham Ward (University of Manchester), co-editor of "Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology" (Routledge, 1998).

11 January 2010

Book: A Political History of Early Christianity

Allen Brent's monograph "A Political History of Early Christianity"
(T & T Clark, September 2009) contains a chapter on "The Political Theology of the Augustan Revolution: Cosmic Reconstruction":

www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=130547

Publisher's description: "Allen Brent examines early Christianity and its triumph in Roman Empire. Starting with the description of the apocalyptic movement of the earliest form of Roman [Markan] Christianity, Brent moves on to illustrate various aspects that have made Christianity so powerful. Explaining numerous ideas involved in the rising of the Christianity, such as metaphysical reality, church organisation, nascent Trinitarianism, Allen Brent also emphasizes the impact of emperor Constantine's position in the new Christian cosmic and political order: a Trinity of distinct coequal and co-eternal persons was to trump the claims of an imperial monarchy reflecting a cosmic one. Brent discusses the Christian history in the general context of political movements that seek initially to achieve a 'root and branch' transformation of present society."

Reviews: "Allen Brent's Political History of Early Christianity is breath-taking and ground-breaking. He argues that the Jesus Movement, from its earliest days until it blossomed into the officially sanctioned Christianity of the Roman Empire under Constantine at the start of the fourth century, was inextricably linked to and in tension with the political concerns of wider culture. However, Brent demonstrates that this does not reduce Jesus and the movement that evolved in his name to a group of mere social revolutionaries." (Paul Foster, University of Edinburgh)

"His aim in the present book is to examine the relation between metaphysical theories and their political contexts, with a broad remit in the interpretation of the terms 'metaphysical' and 'political'. [...] The writing is characteristically lucid, the scholarship impeccable, the argument brisk but incisive". (Mark Edwards, Oxford)

Allen Brent was formerly Professor in History at James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia, and is now a member of the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge.

08 January 2010

CFP: Political theology at AAR 2010

Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 30 October-1 November 2010

Calls for panels and papers on political theology

Hent de Vries (Johns Hopkins University) and Corey D.B. Walker (Brown University) will continue their multi-year "Theology and the Political Consultation":

Whither political theology? Why the recent proliferation of scholarship on political theology? How useful is the concept for understanding historic and contemporary flows in politics, religion, society, and thought? Is the very ubiquity of the concept suggestive of a general malaise in critical thinking in our contemporary moment? Whither political theology for all that we know now? We invite paper proposals that critically examine the theoretical and political opportunities and challenges of the use and deployment of ideas and formulations of political theology across disciplinary boundaries. We are particularly interested in proposals that provide new and innovative possibilities for critical engagements with this concept in light of contemporary configurations of political and economic power.

They accept proposals submitted online or by e-mail (no attachment; include the Participant Form for E-mail Submission): hentdevries@jhu.edu, cdbwalker@brown.edu

Johnny B. Hill (Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary) organizes the "Theology of Martin Luther King Jr. Consultation":

This Consultation invites papers and panel proposals related to the life and thought of Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights movement, and contemporary social justice movements. We are especially interested in proposals exploring critical reflection on King and political theology, theological understandings of prophetic Christianity, as well as broader religious perspectives on justice and social transformation.

Online proposal submission only.

Contact: jhill@lpts.edu

Reid Locklin (University of Toronto) and Kurt Anders Richardson (McMaster University) are the chairs of the "Comparative Theology Group":

This Group invites comparative, constructive proposals in the following areas: 1) Revelation and natural theology (possibly cosponsored with the Christian Systematic Theology Section); 2) Political theologies; 3) Mystical marriage or union (possibly cosponsored with the Mysticism Group); 4) Frank Clooney on comparative theology; 5) Critical inquiry/critical immunity – the place of critical reasoning in contemporary theologies; 6) Apologetics, polemics, and debate; 7) Theologies mediated through arts; 8) Election/vocation; and 9) Unacknowledged pioneers of comparative theology. We strongly encourage panel proposals and welcome a wide variety of methodological approaches. Proposals on other topics will also be taken into consideration.

Online proposal submission only.

Contacts: reid.locklin@utoronto.ca, kar@mcmaster.ca

There will also be a "Liberation Theologies Consultation", chaired by Thia Cooper (Gustavus Adolphus College):

This Consultation asks, "What does liberation theology mean in and for the twenty-first century?" We encourage cross-over dialogue – between contexts and between disciplines – and reflection on the implications of liberationist discourse for the transformation of theology as a whole – methodologically and theologically. In this vein, we will invite a panel of practitioners and activists, directly and through this call, to engage their particular contexts (economics, politics, sex, gender, ethnicity, race, environment, etc.) with the two themes in this forum. We would like to include a broad spectrum of panelists, representing the medical field, law, journalism, civil society organizations, etc.

Online proposal submission only.

Contact: tcooper@gac.edu

There is a number of other calls that may be of interest, namely from the "Study of Islam Section" (political Islam), the "Theology and Religious Reflection Section" (relationship between aesthetics and the political, between beauty and liberation; intersections of theological and religious reflection with philosophical and political issues), the "Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Group" (Buddhist political philosophies), the "Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture Group" (social and political implications of Kierkegaard's concept of the "single individual"; can a politics that speaks to contemporary concerns be derived from Kierkegaard's critique of his time), and the "Christian Zionism in Comparative Perspective Seminar" (faith-based Christian political support for the State of Israel).

You have 1,000 words to make the case for your paper proposal. In addition, you will need a 150-word abstract. Prearranged paper sessions/panels require a separate 1,000 word proposal for each paper in the session. Individual paper abstracts will be listed in the online Program Book.

Submit your proposal via the method requested by the program unit.

Deadline: 1 March 2010

If you have any questions about your proposal, contact the chair of the program unit or the person noted in the call for papers.

Carefully note any audiovisual needs before you submit your proposal. A limited number of meeting rooms are supplied with LCD projectors for connecting to a personal laptop. AAR encourages participants to bring or share a personal or departmental laptop to run any PowerPoint, CD, or DVD presentation. Analog equipment such as overhead projectors, slide projectors, etc. are available to rent at the participant's cost. All AV requests must be received at the time of the proposal. Late requests cannot be accommodated.

Online submission and further information here:

www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/Call_for_Papers/

Notification of your proposal's acceptance status will be sent by 1 April 2010.

Membership is not required to submit a proposal. However, all participants accepted to the program must be current (2010) AAR members and registered for the Annual Meeting by 15 June 2010. Membership waivers are available to participants working outside the field of the study of religion or participants from developing nations. Contact the program unit chair for more details on how to arrange a waiver.

Participants may appear no more than two times in any capacity (e.g. paper presenter, panelist, presider, or respondent). The only exception is business meeting presiders. A person can have only one role in a session. You cannot preside and present a paper in the same session. The only exception is business meeting presiders. People can submit no more than two proposals in response to the call for papers. This includes submitting the same proposal to two separate units or two different proposals to two different units.

CFP: "Italian Critical Theory" and political theology

The journal "Annali d'Italianistica" – based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – seeks essays for a special issue on "Italian Critical Theory" (including political theology) to be published in fall 2011.

www.ibiblio.org/annali/upcoming.html

Twenty-one years ago, the publication of Giovanna Borradori's anthology Recoding Metaphysics (1988) and of Gianni Vattimo's The End of Modernity (1988) signaled that the post-war generation of Italian philosophers was ready to join the theoretical debate that was going on in the English-speaking world.

The translation of other works by Vattimo generated an interest that went way beyond the boundaries of Italian Studies. A few years later, the English publication of Giorgio Agamben's The Coming Community (1993), immediately followed by other volumes, made the Italian philosopher a household name in comparative literature departments and continental philosophy programs. The philosophical geography of the North-American universities was indeed opening up to new territories.

The appearance of Carlo Sini's Images of Truth (1993), Massimo Cacciari's Necessary Angel (1994), Mario Perniola's Enigmas (1995), Adriana Cavarero's In Spite of Plato (1995), Antonio Negri's Marx Beyond Marx (1996) – not to mention the books of the same authors that came after, culminating in the best-selling status of Antonio Negri's and Michael Hardt's Empire, 2001 – made clear that contemporary Italian philosophy was now a strong presence in the post-modern theoretical landscape of the American and British universities. Recently, Brian Schroeder's and Silvia Benso's anthology Contemporary Italian Philosophy (2007) has charted an exceptionally varied land, whose richness is second to none in terms of theoretical ambition and hermeneutical subtlety.

Seeking to situate itself within this theoretical context, the 2011 "Annali d'Italianistica" volume intends to address the relevance of Italian critical theory today. It will be divided in two parts. The first section will include invited papers only. Some of the most prominent Italian philosophers have been invited to contribute and they have all accepted the invitation. The second section will be open to the contributions of scholars who wish to engage in this theoretical debate and will answer this call for papers.

As a mere suggestion, submissions may be organized around keywords such as aesthetics, bioethics, biopolitics, cognitive approaches, deconstructionism, difference and identity, existentialism and phenomenology, feminism, geopolitics, genealogy, gender, GLBTQ studies, elites and multitudes, Europe and Empire, grammatology, hermeneutics, humanism and anti-humanism, Idealism and its legacy, metaphysics and its destiny, Marxism and post-Marxism, modernity and post-modernity, North/South dichotomy, otherness and sameness, philosophy and religion, political theology, traveling theories, semiotics, style and the philosophical discourse.

In additional to the theorists who have already been mentioned, "Annali d'Italianistica" will welcome papers on other relevant figures of the Italian thought in the last sixty years.

As "Annali d'Italianistica" intends to make Italian critical theory available to the English speaking world, all contributions will be in English. All contributions will be refereed. Essays, not to exceed twenty-five double-spaced pages, should conform to the MLA style, as set forth under "Norms for Contributors" on the "Annali d'Italianistica" website.

Deadline for submissions: 30 September 2010

Prospective contributors should address all inquiries to Alessandro Carrera (Department of Modern and Classical Languages, University of Houston): acarrera@uh.edu

07 January 2010

JOB: Visiting professorship on political theologies at Stanford

Gerda Henkel Visiting Professor at Stanford University 2010-2011

Call for applications

Focus area: "Political Theologies: History, Religion and Law in Modern Germany"

www.stanford.edu/dept/german/cgi-bin/?q=node/259

The Gerda Henkel Visiting Professorship at Stanford's Department of German Studies is open to faculty members at German universities with distinguished scholarly accomplishments in a historical humanities field other than literature, e.g. History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Art, or Music History.

Applicants for the 2010-2011 academic year should demonstrate a specific interest in the broad area "Political Theologies: History, Religion and Law in Modern Germany". Specializations may include topics such as the Kulturkampf, Weber's sociology of religion, the problem of the Weimar Center, or broader questions of charisma in politics.

The Gerda Henkel Visiting Professor will normally be on research leave from his or her home university and will be appointed at Stanford for one academic quarter (three months) to be scheduled at mutual convenience. A stipend is available to help defray costs of the visit.

The Visiting Professor will be expected to offer two courses, at least one of which will be designed for graduate students, while the other will be defined in terms of departmental needs. Each visitor will be fully integrated into the academic and intellectual life of the department, including participation in colloquia. In addition, the Visiting Professor will deliver one formal lecture, advertised to the university community and open to the public.

The academic quarters for 2010-2011 are autumn: 20 September-10 December; winter: 3 January-10 March; and spring: 20 March-8 June.

Applications should include a statement of interest, a full CV and bibliography, a selection of proposed courses, and the preferred term for residence. Please direct inquiries and applications to Ms Midori Inahara: minahara@stanford.edu

Deadline: 30 March 2010

Stanford University is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the diversity of its faculty. It welcomes nominations of and applicants from women and members of minority groups, as well as others who would bring additional dimensions to the university's research and teaching missions.

CFP: Deconstructing the Gods: Towards a Post-Religious Criticism

Third Annual Brooklyn College Graduate English Conference, at Brooklyn College (a part of CUNY), New York, USA, 10 April 2010

Call for papers: "Deconstructing the Gods: Towards a Post-Religious Criticism"

Papers on liberation theologies are explicitly invited, but I am sure they also mean political theologies.

"If one were asked to provide a single explanation for the growth of English studies in the later nineteenth century, one could do worse than reply, 'the failure of religion.'" (Terry Eagleton)

"Literature would begin wherever one no longer knows who writes and who signs the narrative of the call – and of the 'Here I Am' – between the absolute Father and Son." (Jacques Derrida)

The concept of "God", in our increasingly pluralist postmodern environment, is protean and subject to vastly divergent individual definitions. Yet gods are often regarded as the most objective and stable nuclei of religious communities. Whereas gods may be imagined as idealized selves, and may epitomize correct morality for a believer, they may simultaneously be said to function as political and rhetorical devices – dangerously slippery proxies of both transcendent subjectivity and faith-based violence.

One of the more liberating tasks of literary criticism, especially since the latter half of the 20th century, has been its attempt to uncover traces of dominant structures that lie dormant in literary texts. Marxist criticism has brought an examination of economic structures in a text. Feminist criticism has brought a critique of patriarchal forces. Postcolonial thought has unfolded the effects of colonialism and imperialism. Where, one might ask, is the criticism of religious power, and how might it be foregrounded?

Unlike other modes of thought, religious discourse is uniquely protected by a veneer of the sacred, which allows it to be self-censoring or, as Derrida said, auto-immunizing. Literary criticism operates as a sort of secular exegesis; it is perhaps for this reason, and because of the pseudo-religious assumptions of criticism, that religion is often elided from critical inquiry. What might a post-religious criticism reveal about the religious forces at work within texts and canons? Within criticism itself?

From the feudal warrior culture of Beowulf to the heretical Catholicisms of Ulysses, religious forces are active, whether as narrative fulcra or dynamic backdrops. Literary works such as The Song of Roland depict warring factions of religionists, each with a god-concept at the helm of their ideological battleship. Dissecting these gods with the tools of cultural criticism has the potential to bring new insight, and to uncover power structures previously unnoticed.

How might we discover, for instance, textual evidence for ways in which religions have been used as a means of solidifying tribal identity, and for ways in which religions have been the ideological forces behind genocide? This conference seeks to explore the significance of the "post-religious" in all of its senses, both as an object of literary representation and as a condition of literary study.

Sample topics might include, but are by no means limited to: The Divine Author(ity); Homoeroticism in Early Modern Devotional Literature; Eden, Exile, and the Fortunate Fall; Divine Revelation and the Muse; Via Negativa: What God Isn't; God, Ego, and the God-Self; The Sacred and the Taboo: Religion as a Self-Censoring Discourse; Atheist Literature of the 19th century; Ghosts: Spiritualism in the 19th Century; The Poetics of Transcendent Experience; The Apostate in Islamic Literature; Confessional Literature and the Catholic Confessional; Holy Texts and the Language of Violence; Alterity: Demonization of the "Other" Religion; Liberation Theologies; Blasphemous Humor as Social Satire; Madness and Heresy; The Christian Rhetoric of Imperialism.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words are to be sent in the body of an e-mail to: bcgradconference@gmail.com

Deadline: 31 January 2010

Book: Cool Passion: The Political Theology of Conviction

Thomas Blom Hansen is the author of "Cool Passion: The Political Theology of Conviction" (Amsterdam University Press, May 2009), a booklet of 32 pages apparently based on an inaugural lecture he gave on 25 May 2007 at the conclusion of a three-day conference under the same title, taking place at the University of Amsterdam.

www.aup.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_book&isbn=9789056295509

Publisher's description: "The category of belief has been severely criticised in the last decades but ideas of having principles based on interior reflections and conscience are as strong as ever across the world. This indicates that the modern idea of conviction – religious or secular – should be understood as a way of relating to the world that has a genealogy of its won [sic] that is not identical to religious belief.

"Modern convictions are based on two forms of ethics: firstly an individualized ethics of sincerity that emerged from the 17th century onwards as an ideal of honest and consistent public conduct. Secondly, an ethics of consequence that emerges with radical, Jacobin and collective politics and a new belief in radical socio-political utopias in the 19th century. In the 20th century, these ethical formations have spread across the world and form today the basis of a global grammar of interiority that lies at the heart of near-universal figures such as the 'activist' and the committed selfless social worker."

Thomas Blom Hansen is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.

Book: Disciplining the Divine: Toward an (Im)political Theology

"Disciplining the Divine: Toward an (Im)political Theology" is the first and last book by the Lancaster University theologian Paul Fletcher who passed away suddenly in July 2008. The book was published posthumously by Ashgate in August 2009:

www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calctitle=1&pageSubject=3058&title_id=9873&edition_id=11856

Publisher's description: "Disciplining the Divine offers the first comprehensive treatment of the Social Model of the Trinity, exploring its central place within much theological discourse of the past half century, including its relation to wider cultural and political concerns. The book highlights the manner in which theologians have attempted to make the doctrine of God relevant to modern issues and outlooks and it charts the conditions that have necessitated such a reconfiguration of theological analysis. While interrogatory in tone and intent, Disciplining the Divine nevertheless provides a critical reconstruction of a Christian theology and practice which might be undertaken within the political and cultural contexts of the new millennium."

Review: "In this insightful book, Paul Fletcher provides a critical overview of the status of political theology today, as well as a thorough refutation of the social model of the Trinity. Written with the clarity that derives from long experience of teaching on this subject, Fletcher provides a most engaging suggestion for the future of political theology." (Philip Goodchild, University of Nottingham)

06 January 2010

Book: Political Theology for Theological Politics

In May 2009, G. Emem Umoren published "Political Theology for Theological Politics: A Reflective Inquiry into the Relevance of the 'Isaianic Option' for Contemporary Politics" with AuthorHouse:

www.authorhouse.co.uk/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=57476

Endorsements: "This book, furnishing a rich, exciting and informative excursus into the religio-political history of Israel in the Isaianic prophetic era, has proven to be ever more relevant today." (Emmanuel S. Udoh, priest)

"I have found this book compelling, interesting and relevant to contemporary society, especially in Africa and [t]he Third World [c]ountries. I therefore, very strongly[,] recommend it to pastors, politicians, theologians, public office holders, the general public and[,] particularly, to all lecturers and students of science and the humanities." (Augustine Odey Onah, Head, Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, University of Uyo, Nigeria)

G. Emem Umoren is a priest in the Catholic diocese of Ikot Ekpene in Nigeria. He holds a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome (Angelicum).

05 January 2010

Journal articles on political theology 2009

Some articles on political theology published in 2009 in academic journals of all conceivable disciplines:

David Theo Goldberg (University of California, Irvine), "A Political Theology of Race: Articulating Racial Southafricanization", Cultural Studies, 23 (4), July 2009: pp. 513-37.

Abstract: "Over the past three decades Stuart Hall has provided many of the key terms for (re)thinking the social, the cultural, and the political. Largely absent from his work has been consideration of religion and, given more recent theoretical developments, of the theologico-political. I pose a series of questions to Stuart Hall by considering an analysis of race as political theology, exemplified by a focus on the history of South African apartheid and its afterlife."

Mika Luoma-aho (University of Lapland), "Political Theology, Anthropomorphism, and Person-hood of the State: The Religion of IR", International Political Sociology, 3 (3), September 2009: pp. 293-309.

Abstract: "In this article I identify international relations as a form of religion. My identification takes two epistemological paths. The first one has been cleared by political theologians such as Carl Schmitt, who teach that 'secular' political ideas not only have a divine origin, but also structural identity with Christian theology. I will clear the second path with help from a cognitive theory of religion that identifies anthropomorphism as a defining criterion of religion. International relations is a religion, because it is a system of thought that takes the metaphorical image of the personified, embodied state more seriously than other, more idiosyncratic forms of anthropomorphism. What we have in academic IR is, thus, a theology that works to generalize and systematize this religious image into a disciplinary form."

Dimitris Vardoulakis (University of Western Sydney), "Stasis: Beyond Political Theology?", Cultural Critique, 73, fall 2009, pp. 125-47.

From the preview: "Political theology refers to the impossibility of both to completely separate and to completely conflate politics and religion. [...] It remains a point of contention, however, what the repercussions of the trespassing of theological concepts into the political are. [...] Despite the differences between these thinkers, there is one abiding characteristic. There is a constitutive disjunction between politics and the political, between law and justice. As a result, political theology forecloses meaning in politics – that is, no political party or representative can be thought to represent the political ideal. More emphatically, there is no end of history. I will explore here whether it is possible to understand the foreclosure of meaning not as the conclusion, but rather as the condition of the possibility of the political. Can the meaningless or the irrational function as the basis of the intertwining and imbrication of the secular and the sacred?"

Nur Masalha (St Mary's University College), "Reading the Bible with the Eyes of the Canaanites: Neo-Zionism, Political Theology and the Land Traditions of the Bible (1967 to Gaza 2009)", Holy Land Studies, 8 (1), May 2009: pp. 55-108.

Abstract: "In modern times, a whole range of colonial enterprises have used the Bible. The book of Joshua and other biblical texts evoking the exploits of ancient Israelites have been deployed in support of secular Zionism and settler colonisation in Palestine. The mega narratives of the Bible, however, appeared to mandate the ethnic cleansing and even genocide of the indigenous population of Canaan. This article argues that, with the rise of messianic Zionism since 1967, a Jewish theology of zealotocracy, based on the land traditions of the Bible, has emerged in Israel – a political theology that demanded the destruction of the so-called modern Canaanites; since 1967 fundamentalist rabbis have routinely compared the Palestinian people to the ancient Canaanites, Philistines and Amalekites, whose annihilation or expulsion by the ancient Israelites was predestined by a divine design. This article focuses on the politics of reading the Bible by neo-Zionists and examines the theology of the messianic current which embraces the paradigm of Jews as a divinely 'chosen people' and sees the indigenous Palestinians as no more than illegitimate squatters, and a threat to the process of messianic redemption; their human and civil rights are no match for the biblically ordained holy war of conquering and settling the 'Promised Land'."

Rutger Henneman (researcher and activist) and Alastair McIntosh (University of Strathclyde), "The Political Theology of Modern Scottish Land Reform", Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 3 (3), 2009: pp. 340-75.

Abstract: "This paper gathers evidence that modern Scottish land reform was influenced by applied liberation theology from both grassroot community activists and institutional churches. Scotland's land tenure was feudal to the late twentieth century. Plutocratic ownership impacted the economics and psychology of community wellbeing. The 1990s produced a land reform movement culminating in the new Scottish Parliament's Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 and the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. These created a conditional 'community right to buy' and affirmed freedom of 'right to roam'. Two percent of Scottish land is now in community ownership. Our research interviewed fifteen movers and shakers – both national theologians and local activists from the vanguard land trusts of Eigg, Assynt and Gigha. We conclude that spirituality and religion can be subtle drivers of community empowerment. By inspiring, informing and legitimising socio-political transformation, a 'Remnant' theology factored into Scottish legislation of international significance."

Erin Runions (Pomona College), "Detranscendentalizing Decisionism: Political Theology after Gayatri Spivak", Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 25 (2), fall 2009, pp. 67-85.

Abstract: "This essay uses the thought of Gayatri Spivak to reread one religious trope – the antichrist – commonly used in conservative political discourse to motivate a masculinist theopolitical decisionism. Runions draws a connection between Spivak's insistence on detranscendentalizing radical alterity – which is a deconstructive literary approach to religious narratives – and Spivak's larger concern with ethics. The project of detranscendentalizing is an important first step toward the impossible ethical encounter with the other; it thus charts a course for critiquing theopolitics and imagining new modes of political engagement, in ways that resist the usual conservative accusations of neutrality. To illustrate, the essay draws to the fore the ancient Near Eastern mythological filiations between Christ and antichrist; it reads the antichrist as a detranscendentalized figure that ironically disrupts the masculinist authority of decisions made in the name of Christ and makes room for the singular encounter with the political other."

Anthony O'Mahony (Heythrop College), "The Vatican and Europe: Political Theology and Ecclesiology in Papal Statements from Pius XII to Benedict XVI", International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 9 (3), August 2009, pp. 177-94.

Abstract: "The article examines the origins and evolution of the Vatican's political theology and ecclesiology for Europe from Pius XII (especially after the Second World War) and including the pontificates of John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It seeks to examine the continuities of the 'Idea of Europe' in papal thought against a background of changing political context – the end of the Second World War, the Cold War, the fall of the communist state system, the emergence of a united but diverse Europe after 1989. The political structures of the continent now include within its geographic sweep Western and Eastern Christian churches which, divided by tradition and modern history, find their relationship a key marker in the contemporary religious identity of Europe. This reality is a significant framework for Vatican thinking on Europe especially for John Paul II and Benedict XVI."

Victoria Kahn (University of California at Berkeley), "Political Theology and Fiction in The King's Two Bodies", Representations, 106, spring 2009: pp. 77-101.

Abstract: "This essay argues that Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies is intended as a contribution to twentieth-century debates about political theology and that modern students of political theology can learn from Kantorowicz's association of political theology with legal fiction."

Jennifer R. Rust (Saint Louis University), "Political Theology and Shakespeare Studies", Literature Compass, 6 (1), January 2009: pp. 175-90.

Abstract: "The current focus on political theology in Shakespeare studies is largely devoted to tracing how Shakespeare's dramas illuminate the structural link between religious and political forms in both early modernity and modern liberal democracy. Critics concerned with addressing Shakespeare's engagement with political theology are also interested in how Shakespeare's portrayal of sovereign bodies in crisis constitute an early representation of 'biopolitics'. These critics draw on theorists ranging from Carl Schmitt to Giorgio Agamben to inform their analyses of the way Shakespeare dramatizes sovereignty in a 'state of emergency' in his histories and tragedies. Plays such as Richard II, Coriolanus, and Hamlet have drawn particular attention insofar as they vividly interrogate the nature of the sovereign exception and decision highlighted by theorists of political theology. While this line of criticism adds a new theoretical dimension to Shakespeare studies, it also offers the potential for remapping our understanding of the religious and political history of early modern England in its attention to the deforming pressure of religious schism on traditional structures of sovereignty."

Aaron Riches (University of Nottingham), "Political Theology and Pauline Law: Notes Toward a Sapiential Legality", Telos, 146, spring 2009, pp. 140-57.

Excerpt: "In 1979, on the thirty-ninth anniversary of the closing of the Franco-Spanish border at Port Bou and one day before the anniversary of the suicide of Walter Benjamin, Jacob Taubes and Carl Schmitt opened the Bible in the Sauerland. The two men sat down in Plettenburg to read St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, chapters 9-11. As if in memory of Benjamin, they spoke 'under a priestly seal': Schmitt, the most important state law theorist of the twentieth century, a Roman Catholic and sometime member of the Nazi Party; Taubes, a Jewish philosopher of a Messianic and oddly left-wing disposition ..."

Mike Grimshaw (University of Canterbury), "Responding not Believing: Political Theology and Post-Secular Society", Political Theology, 10 (3), fall 2009: pp. 537-57.

Abstract: "In the past decade social theorists and Continental philosophers have returned again to an engagement with Christianity and the legacy of Christian belief. This is framed in the context of a Europe seen in transition to a post-secular identity and, often implicitly, against what is seen as an encroaching Islamic presence within Europe. This move has often brought together Marxist, post-Marxist, and Catholic-legacy philosophers, together with philosophical Protestants in an attempt to recover what I term a political theology of response. Response, in opposition to belief, signals an alternative post-secular turn of attempted inclusion out of a perceived shared cultural legacy. This essay asks if, in such a cultural philosophical turn, the alternative post-secular turn of a political theology of response signals that belief remains within the private sphere as we seek to engage in a public conversation of non-believing 'response'?"

The same journal, "Political Theology", carried, on occasion of the 500th birthday of John Calvin, in issue 3 of its 10th volume (fall 2009) a symposium on "John Calvin and Political Theology":

www.politicaltheology.com/ojs/index.php/PT/issue/view/690

Articles include: "Editorial: Remembering Geneva's Calvin" by Marilynne Robinson (University of Iowa); "John Calvin and the Jews: A Problem in Political Theology" by David C. Steinmetz (Duke Divinity School); "Calvin and Natural Rights" by David Little (Harvard Divinity School); "Calvin's Legacy for Public Theology" by Richard J. Mouw (Fuller Theological Seminary); and "What Reformed Theology in a Calvinist Key Brings to Conversations about Justice" by Douglas F. Ottati (Davidson College).

Aristide Tessitore (Furman University), "Political Theology and the Theological-Political Problem", Perspectives on Political Science, 38 (1), winter 2009: pp. 5-12.

Abstract: "This essay offers a critical appreciation of Mark Lilla's Stillborn God. To his credit, Lilla understands the primacy and enduring appeal of political theology, as well as the danger of intellectual complacency about the underlying principles of modern politics. Lilla maintains that modern politics is a relatively recent and radically novel experiment that aims at nothing less than displacing a primordial and perennial way of constituting politics with reference to the divine. My essay compares Lilla's analysis of the fundamental antagonism between political theology and modern liberal politics to Strauss's analysis of the theological-political problem. In doing so, I bring to light both the strengths and limits of Lilla's attempt to clarify the relationship between politics, biblical religion, and philosophic rationalism."

Sandrine Baume (University of Lausanne), "On Political Theology: A Controversy Between Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt", History of European Ideas, 35 (3), September 2009: pp. 369-81.

Abstract: "This article pays special attention to the large number of references to political theology by Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt, particularly in the interwar period, and seeks to interpret these references in a new way. While Schmitt's analogies between God and state are to be expected considering his strong Catholic roots, such comparisons are much more surprising for a positivist like Hans Kelsen, who always tried to relieve state and law from transcendental elements. The article concludes that, far from being marginal in the doctrinal dispute between Schmitt and Kelsen, references to political theology express and summarize their major controversy about the relation between state and law, as well as about the sources of the state's unity. The heart of the disputatio between the two jurists concerned the ability of the political power to emancipate itself from the juridical order. The 'legal miracle' – in this context meaning the occasional autonomization of the state from law – was for Schmitt the manifestation of sovereign power. However, for Kelsen it represented the negation of the state's essence, whose actions must be determined only by the legal order."

Anna Schmidt (University of Munich), "The Problem of Carl Schmitt's Political Theology", Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, 36 (3), summer 2009: pp. 219-52.

No abstract available.

Boaventura de Sousa Santos (University of Coimbra, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Warwick), "If God Were a Human Rights Activist: Human Rights and the Challenge of Political Theologies", Law, Social Justice and Global Development Journal (LGD), 13, 2009 (1), March, refereed electronic journal, full text available online:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/lgd/2009_1/santos

Abstract: "Citing the inability of conventional human rights thinking to address the 'strong' questions raised by our times, this article pursues a twofold objective: to identify the major challenges that the rise of political theologies at the beginning of the twentieth-first [sic] century posed to human rights; and second, to select within a broad landscape of theological analysis the types of reflections and practices that might contribute to expand and deepen the canon of human rights politics. In order to achieve this double goal the article uses complexity as its main analytical guideline making distinctions from which significant consequences were drawn: on one side, distinctions among different types of political theologies (pluralist versus revelationist, traditionalist versus progressive); and, on the other, between two contrasting discourses and practices of human rights politics (hegemonic versus counter-hegemonic). Depending on the circumstances, even conventional or hegemonic human rights struggles may be a progressive tool against social practices and norms derived from traditionalist and revelationist theologies. Pluralist and progressive theologies, in turn, may be a source of radical energy toward more ambitious, counter-hegemonic human rights struggles."

Please let me know if I missed any important articles.

Book: Credit, crisis, and redemption (in German)

Samuel Weber (Northwestern University) has had a small booklet published in Germany titled "Geld ist Zeit: Gedanken zu Kredit und Krise" (Diaphanes Verlag, September 2009):

www.diaphanes.de/scripts/buch.php?ID=180

According to the publisher's website, this is a translation from English, but the original text seems not yet to have been published. Weber appears to have spoken on the topic in English ("Money is Time: Is the 'Credit Crisis' A Crisis of 'Redemption'?") at the University of Stockholm (December 2008), the University of Nottingham (October 2009), and the Catholic University of Portugal (November 2009), though.

From the publisher's description (my rough translation): Along with the financial crisis and the crisis of the banking industry, "[w]e are currently experiencing a veritable crisis of faith, which shakes the value system of the western world in its foundations. Samuel Weber's essay is guided by the question what logic is at the basis of an economy that has reached such extensive, quasi-theological dimensions".

Benjamin Franklin said "time is money", but also "credit is money". "The logic of capitalism is built [...] on credit: the belief of investors and consumers in the amortization of debt through return on investment ('Rendite'). 'Return on investment' is 'the capitalist kind of profit as redemption: repayment, amortization and salvation ('Rückzahlung, Tilgung und Erlösung').

"Weber's lucid, fierce analysis of the 'crisis' reveals that in a society in which the credere has taken the place of the Lutheran sola fide, capitalism has become the religion of a cult that is (with Walter Benjamin) 'not atoning, but indebting'." (my italics)

A (largely unfavourable) review in today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung indicates that Weber bases his essay as much on Carl Schmitt's political theology – an analogy between religious and secular terminology – as on Benjamin.