20 December 2011

Article: Development, ethics and theology: interdisciplinary connections and challenges

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Article: Development, ethics and theology: interdisciplinary connections and challenges

Just published: Kjetil Fretheim (MF Norwegian School of Theology), "Development, ethics and theology: interdisciplinary connections and challenges" ("Journal of Global Ethics", 7 [3], 2011: pp. 303-13).

Quote: "In this paper, I address the interdisciplinary character of development studies and ethics by discussing the relationship between Christian theology and development studies in general and development ethics in particular. I begin by presenting development theology, a kind of theology ... related to the better-known liberation theology".

19 December 2011

Job: Chancellor's Fellowship

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Job: Chancellor's Fellowship

The School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh offers a 5-year, full-time, tenure-track Chancellor's Fellowship to "early career scholar-teachers" with an interest in Christian Ethics and Practical Theology (including political theology).

Also on offer are fellowships in Religious Studies and in World Christianity. Across the university, a total of 100 Chancellor's Fellowships are available.

18 December 2011

Book: The Weimar Moment: Liberalism, Political Theology, and Law

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Book: The Weimar Moment: Liberalism, Political Theology, and Law

Just published: The contributed volume, "The Weimar Moment: Liberalism, Political Theology, and Law", edited by Leonard V. Kaplan and Rudy Koshar (both University of Wisconsin-Madison), is based on a 2008 conference of the same title (Lexington Books, December 2011).

Quote: " The Weimar Moment 's evocative assault on closure and political reaction ... cannot but appeal to us today. This appeal - its historical grounding and content, its complexities and tensions, its variegated expressions across the networks of power and thought - is the essential context of the present volume, whose ... challenge ... is to provide the material to confront the present effectively".

16 December 2011

Book: The Challenges of Cultural Discipleship: Essays in the Line of Abraham Kuyper

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Book: The Challenges of Cultural Discipleship: Essays in the Line of Abraham Kuyper

Just published: Richard J. Mouw (Fuller Theological Seminary), "The Challenges of Cultural Discipleship: Essays in the Line of Abraham Kuyper" (Eerdmans, November 2011).

Quote: "In thirteen essays Mouw explores and develops the Kuyperian perspective on key topics in Christian cultural discipleship, including public theology ... He deftly articulates an ecumenically enriched neo-Calvinist - or 'neo-Kuyperian' - perspective that appropriates and contextualizes the ideas and insights of this important theologian and statesman for new challenges in Christian thought and service."

15 December 2011

Book: Routledge Handbook of Political Islam

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Book: Routledge Handbook of Political Islam

Just published: Shahram Akbarzadeh (University of Melbourne) is the editor of a contributed volume titled "Routledge Handbook of Political Islam" (Routledge, December 2011).

Quote: "[A] multidisciplinary overview of the phenomenon of political Islam, one of the key political movements of our time. Drawing on the expertise from some of the top scholars in the world it examines the main issues surrounding political Islam across the world, from aspects of Muslim integration in the West to questions of political legitimacy in the Muslim world."

Job: Operations Manager

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Job: Operations Manager

The Quixote Center, "a multi-issue social justice organization ... rooted in the tradition of liberation theology and Catholic reform movements", based in College Park, MD, USA, is looking for an Operations Manager.

Please follow the link for more details about this position.

12 December 2011

Article: Spanish Fascism as a Political Religion (1931-1941)

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Article: Spanish Fascism as a Political Religion (1931-1941)

Just published: Zira Box (National University of Distance Education, Spain) and Ismael Saz (University of Valencia), "Spanish Fascism as a Political Religion (1931-1941)" ("Politics, Religion & Ideology", 12 [4], 2011: pp. 371-89).

Quote: "Spanish Fascism was a political religion during the Republican period, that is, from the time of its consolidation during the early 1930s to the beginning of the Civil War. However - and this is the main analytical challenge - it was also one after July 1936, in spite of the fact that the formation of Franco's Movimiento Nacional imposed no small transformations upon it."

CFP: Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, and "the Critique of Violence"

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CFP: Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, and "the Critique of Violence"

Papers on political theology are invited for a workshop on "Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, and 'the Critique of Violence'", in the programme of the 13th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI), to be held 2-6 July 2012 at the University of Cyprus, Nicosia. Deadline: 15 April 2012.

Quote: "Papers will be invited on a range of possible topics, including but not limited to the following: ... Political Theology ... Benjamin and/or Agamben in relation to works by Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, ... G.W.F. Hegel, ... Hermann Cohen, ... Gershom Scholem, ... Carl Schmitt, ... Jacob Taubes, ... Emmanuel Lévinas, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Rancière, Alain Badiou and others."

Papers are to be submitted to the workshop chairs. Further information on all accepted workshops and a full call for papers are to be found on the conference website: http://issei2012.haifa.ac.il/

10 December 2011

Book: Theology in the Public Sphere: Public Theology as a Catalyst for Open Debate

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Book: Theology in the Public Sphere: Public Theology as a Catalyst for Open Debate

Just published: Sebastian Kim (York St John University), "Theology in the Public Sphere: Public Theology as a Catalyst for Open Debate" (SCM Press, September 2011).

Endorsement: "Drawing on contemporary examples from around the globe including India, Korea and South America, Professor Kim demonstrates how public theology is extending the church's core concerns for justice, community and the well being into the broader public sphere." (John Sentamu, Archbishop of York)

07 December 2011

CFP: Renaissance Borders

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CFP: Renaissance Borders

A call for papers on "Renaissance Borders" and (early modern) political theology for the Annual Princeton Renaissance Studies Graduate Conference, Princeton University, 13-14 April 2012:

"From the beginning, conceptualizations of the Renaissance have been concerned with borders: between the classical past and the modern present; between pagan and Christian; between the civilized and the barbarous. Even as the idea of the Renaissance has endured various critiques over the past half century, this attention to borders has only intensified. In current debates about secularization and periodization in Renaissance studies, the boundaries between past and present and between the sacred and the profane have taken on a newly charged intensity. And these period-specific border disputes relate to more general questions in the humanities today: the future of interdisciplinarity; the role of material culture in the study of art; political theology and the development of the liberal state; and Jacques Ranciere's reading of aesthetics as a 'distribution of the sensible.'

"We invite graduate students from across the disciplines to submit abstracts addressing the issue of borders in the Renaissance, broadly conceived. Topics of interest might include:

"- - National territory, identity, and art
- - Marginalia
- - Relations between the disciplines
- - Levels of style, genre, and class
- - Periodization
- - Secularization
- - City and country
- - Economic, political, and aesthetic distribution
- - Citizen, human, creature
- - Exceptions and emergencies

"Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to renaissanceborders@gmail.com by February 1, 2012."

06 December 2011

Book: To Kill Another: Homicide and Natural Law

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Book: To Kill Another: Homicide and Natural Law

On the political theology of homicide: Graham J. McAleer (Loyola University Maryland), "To Kill Another: Homicide and Natural Law" (Transaction Publishers, October 2010).

Quote: "Western theories of law have drifted steadily towards the privatization of homicide. Public acts of homicide like capital punishment are now viewed by many as barbaric, even for heinous crimes, while a private act of homicide like the (increasingly routine) starvation of comatose patients is viewed by many as a caring gesture both to patient and family. ... McAleer argues that humanitarianism is a false friend to those committed to rule of law. As a consequence, the problem of human vulnerability makes political theology an inescapable consideration for law."

Article: Citizens into wolves?: Carl Schmitt's fictive account of security

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Article: Citizens into wolves?: Carl Schmitt's fictive account of security

Just published: Thomas Moore (University of Westminster), "Citizens into wolves?: Carl Schmitt's fictive account of security" ("Cooperation and Conflict", 46 [4], December 2011: pp. 502-20).

Quote: "This article assesses the extent to which security regimes are the products of authorization in the thought of Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt. ... Schmitt's security regime is fictive, driven by colourful metaphor and political theology. By returning to classic questions of authorization - how a security regime authorizes itself - International Relations theory can examine the legitimation of security beyond an exclusively state-centric model."

02 December 2011

CFP: The Bible, Zionism and Palestine: A conference to explore the role of the bible in theology and politics in Israel and Palestine today

Erich Kofmel - Google+
CFP: The Bible, Zionism and Palestine: A conference to explore the role of the bible in theology and politics in Israel and Palestine today


Paper proposals on, for example, "Palestinian liberation theology" and "religious Zionism" are invited for a conference to be hosted 24-26 May 2012 by the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield, under the theme, "The Bible, Zionism and Palestine: A conference to explore the role of the bible in theology and politics in Israel and Palestine today". Deadline: 1 March 2012.

Quote: "We are welcoming contributions from all perspectives under four main headings: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and the Bible; The Bible and the Existence of Israel; Judaism, Christianity and Zionism; and the Bible and the Palestinians."

The Bible, Zionism and Palestine: A conference to explore the role of the bible in theology and politics in Israel and Palestine today

01 December 2011

CFP: Tradition, Place, and "Things Divine"

Erich Kofmel - Google+
CFP: Tradition, Place, and "Things Divine"

The Ciceronian Society invites paper proposals on "Social-Political Theology" and other subjects related to "Tradition, Place, and 'Things Divine'" for its second annual conference, taking place 29-31 March 2012 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The call for papers does not mention a particular deadline.

Quote: "With respect to possible thinkers whose work might fit well with the Ciceronian Society's concerns, they are legion. Here are just a few: ... Charles Taylor, ... Stanely [sic] Hauerwas, ... Rene Girard, G.K. Chesterton, ... Alasdair MacIntyre, ... Leo Strauss, ... Eric Voegelin".

Conferences | The Ciceronian Society