Sixth installment of recent articles on political theology:
Pini Ifergan (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), "Cutting to the Chase: Carl Schmitt and Hans Blumenberg on Political Theology and Secularization", New German Critique, 37 (3), fall 2010: pp. 149-71.
Abstract: "Is modernity a distinct historical epoch that can be radically distinguished from the one that preceded it? What are the implicit philosophical assumptions regarding our understanding of historical time that determine the sort of answer that we are inclined to give to this question? The debate between Carl Schmitt and Hans Blumenberg concerning the conceptual status of secularization as an explanatory category for the emergence of modernity provides us with a paradigmatic case that sheds light on those questions. With the recent publication of the correspondence between Schmitt and Blumenberg, I suggest in my article a reading of the debate that exposes how they use each other's argument to sharpen their distinctive evaluation of modernity and its relation to Christian theology. These two arguments and their unique dynamic transcend the common ways of either defending or criticizing modernity's claim to be a distinct and legitimate historical epoch. The suggested conceptual reconstructions of the Schmitt-Blumenberg debate point to a revaluation of the terms of the quarrel over modernity, Christian theology, and the relations between them."
Mary Alberi (Pace University), "'Like the Army of God's Camp': Political Theology and Apocalyptic Warfare at Charlemagne's Court", Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 41 (2), 2010: pp. 1-20.
Abstract: "The political theology of Charlemagne's court drew upon theological concepts to interpret contemporary events and fashion an identity for the populus christianus of the Frankish empire. The formulation of this political theology occurred against a background of political and military crises. A number of sources written by his ecclesiastical courtiers refer to the castra Dei, the militant ecclesia, or 'assembly of God's people,' commanded by Charlemagne, on pilgrimage through the dangerous last days of world history. These apocalyptic dangers called for enhanced royal authority to defend the castra Dei through a program of correction. Correction supported consensus among the king and his ecclesiastical and lay magnates, stabilizing the kingdom internally. Correction also established 'liturgical frontiers' separating the orderly and peaceful castra Dei from the world's chaotic paganism and heresy. This attempt to distinguish the castra Dei from its spiritual enemies gave Charlemagne's empire coherence in its political and military conflicts with enemies over contested frontier zones. The apocalyptic rhetoric surrounding references to the castra Dei was connected to political necessity, rather than expectation of an imminent apocalypse."
Scott M. Thomas (University of Bath), "Living Critically and 'Living Faithfully' in a Global Age: Justice, Emancipation and the Political Theology of International Relations", Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 39 (2), December 2010: pp. 505-24.
Abstract: "This article asks is there a place for religion and spirituality in a critical theory of international relations (IR)? The usual answer is 'no' because of critical theory's generally negative assessment of religion in domestic and international politics. However, while many of these criticisms can be acknowledged, a critical theory of IR still has to grapple with the more complex understanding of religion that already exists in critical theory, and the global resurgence of religion how [sic] Eurocentric its concept of religion actually is and how rooted it is in the European experience of modernisation. For the people of the global South – which comprises most of the people in the world – the struggle to 'live faithfully' amid the problems of world poverty, climate change, conflict and development can not be separated from their struggle for justice and emancipation. Therefore, a greater dialogue between critical theory and theology is necessary if critical theory is to more fully and creatively contribute to our understanding of some of the most important global issues in the study of IR in the 21st century."
Richard Lock-Pullan (University of Birmingham), "Challenging the Political Theology of America's 'War on Terror'", in "Just War on Terror? A Christian and Muslim Response", eds. David Fisher and Brian Wicker (Ashgate, July 2010): pp. 37-52.
www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=10155&edition_id=13263
Excerpt: "The events of 11 September 2001 and the response of the US to them have confronted many Christians with the question what is an appropriate Christian response to the challenges of living in an age of terror. In this context one can ask what insights Christian doctrine, as opposed to Christian ethics, has to contribute to understanding the present era and how these can then shape the nature of Christian engagement with the current issues [...]. This chapter will argue that one can generate a Christian perspective and subsequent ethics on the basis of seeing theology as an essentially interpretative task that mediates between Christian doctrine and political events. Using this approach President Bush's use of 'evil' is examined and shown to be a source of absolutist and self-righteous thinking, leading to a disastrous and unjust foreign policy. As an alternative, Reinhold Niebuhr's reinterpretation of the doctrine of sin will be shown to be an effective doctrinal lens to avoid these pitfalls, whilst itself generating a practice of Christian Realism that takes seriously the context of international affairs and Christian vision. The revisions of Niebuhr's theology are then used to develop a more liberal approach which gives the church a transformative role in addressing the 'war on terror', and concludes by examining how Obama's post-Niebuhrian liberal religious views shape current policy."
Jürgen Manemann (Hanover Institute of Philosophical Research), "New Orientations of the Political: On the Contemporary Challenge of Political Theology", in "Edward Schillebeeckx and Contemporary Theology", eds. Lieven Boeve, Frederiek Depoortere, and Stephan van Erp (Continuum, December 2010): pp. 67-81.
www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=136299
No abstract provided.
Julia Reinhard Lupton (University of California, Irvine), "Introduction to a Totem Meal: Hans Kelsen, Carl Schmitt and Political Theology", in "The Return of Theory in Early Modern English Studies: Tarrying with the Subjunctive", eds. Paul Cefalu and Bryan Reynolds (Palgrave Macmillan, February 2011): page numbers not known.
www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=371052
No abstract provided.
Graham Hammill (State University of New York at Buffalo), "The Marlovian Sublime: Imagination and the Problem of Political Theology", in "The Return of Theory in Early Modern English Studies: Tarrying with the Subjunctive", eds. Paul Cefalu and Bryan Reynolds (Palgrave Macmillan, February 2011): page numbers not known.
No abstract provided.
Ross Bender (independent researcher), "Changing the Calendar: Royal Political Theology and the Suppression of the Tachibana Naramaro Conspiracy of 757", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 37 (2), 2010: pp. 223-45.
No abstract provided.
Namsoon Kang (Texas Christian University), "Towards a Cosmopolitan Theology: Constructing Public Theology from the Future", in "Planetary Loves: Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology", eds. Stephen D. Moore and Mayra Rivera (Fordham University Press, December 2010): pp. 258-280.
www.fordhampress.com/detail.html?id=9780823233267
Excerpt: "I believe cosmopolitanism can be an effective discourse with which to advocate a politics of trans-identity of overlapping interests and heterogeneous or hybrid subjects in order to challenge conventional notions of exclusive belonging, identity, and citizenship, and to envision a planetary love through an ethical singularity aimed at a more peaceful and just world. I regard cosmopolitanism as a 'stronger mobilizing discourse' that captures Spivak's call for a mind-changing love for the planet. This essay is an effort to illuminate cosmopolitanism as a discourse that calls simultaneously for a planetary love through ethical singularity, in accordance with Spivak's notion, and for a radical neighborly love, in accordance with the Christian notion. As such, it is also an effort to articulate a cosmopolitan theological discourse, which I believe can be a mobilizing discourse for a more just and egalitarian world regardless of who one is."
Wanda Deifelt (Luther College), "Advocacy, Political Participation, and Citizenship: Lutheran Contributions to Public Theology", Dialog: A Journal of Theology, 49 (2), summer 2010: pp. 108-14.
Abstract: "Martin Luther never developed a political theory, but his theology does inform the way Christians live in society, making it both public and political. Luther's 'two kingdom theory' often has been misinterpreted to justify passivity and obedience toward civil authorities. Under closer examination, however, his theology applies to the everyday practices of politics, economics, and religious affairs. In the context of nation-building, a Lutheran theology fosters citizenship not only as individual rights and responsibilities, but as active participation in civil society."
Robert Meister (University of California, Santa Cruz), "Athens, Jerusalem and Rome after Auschwitz: Still the Jewish Question?", Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology, 102 (1), August 2010: pp. 76-96.
Abstract: "This article treats post-Holocaust humanitarianism as a secular version of St Paul's 'Jewish Question': why are there still Jews now that the particularities of Jewish history have universal meaning? It considers Paul's Judaeo-Christianity, a distinctively Christian embrace of Jewish survival, as the prototype of today's secular project of conversion to human rights, and asks what it means within this project for Jews to regard themselves as the only Jews. The article concludes by defining an Islamic alternative to the imperial reach of today's human rights discourse, based on the recent publication of 1981 lectures by the late N.O. Brown, who presented Islam as an alternative to the Pauline synthesis of Athens-Jerusalem that would renew, rather than supersede, the prophetic tradition of Jewish monotheism. Following Brown, the article presents Muhammad as the anti-Paul, and considers the key differences between their respective political theologies on issues such as fidelity, cruelty and particularly the urgency of justice. Islam's insistence that there is no 'time between' the end of evil and the beginning of justice shows the limitations of today's human rights discourse as a religion of permanent transition that denies urgency to justice itself. The 'Jewish Question' that Paul formulated for Christians in a Roman world order thus illuminates issues posed by the Holocaust and Israel for professed humanitarians today."
Peniel Rajkumar (United Theological College, Bangalore), "'How' Does the Bible Mean? The Bible and Dalit Liberation in India", Political Theology, 11 (3), 2010: pp. 410-30.
Abstract: "This essay analyses the role of the Bible in Dalit liberation in a context where Dalit theology, despite being increasingly recognized as an academic theology, hasn't been effective practically in either sustaining the Dalits in their struggles for liberation or in challenging the perpetuation of caste discrimination within the Indian churches. In the light of the Dalits' own reception of the Bible as a potential source of Dalit liberation the essay critically revisits some of the defining biblical paradigms articulated by Dalit theologians, using as its epistemological tool the tensions between 'epic' and 'emic' forms of theological conceptualizations, in order to identify the reasons for the lacunae between Dalit theology and its practical viability for Dalit liberation. In the light of this analysis the essay explores and offers the synoptic healing stories as a viable biblical paradigm which can animate the Dalit struggles for liberation and thus enhance the practical efficacy of Dalit liberation."
David Grumett (University of Exeter), "Blondel, the Philosophy of Action and Liberation Theology", Political Theology, 11 (4), 2010: pp. 507-29.
Abstract: "Maurice Blondel's philosophy of action and concrete political theology provide foundations for modern theologies of action. By commencing with the reflective subject, Blondel compensates the deficiencies of collectivist Marxist social analysis. He did not live to complete his account of the social, political and economic implications of his philosophy, but they are realized in the work and witness of others: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Yves de Montcheuil, Henri de Lubac and John McNeill. Liberation theologians of diverse persuasions need especially to acknowledge their debt to Blondel in an era when, in Western societies, the fundamental context of action is no longer material but intellectual, spiritual and interpersonal. The abstract nature of his thought means that he frequently opens suggestive paths into further reflection rather than prescribing complete solutions to specific practical questions."
Vincent W. Lloyd (Georgia State University), "Review Essay: Political Theology of the Ordinary", Political Theology, 11 (4), 2010: pp. 607-18.
Abstract: "In her recent book, Emergency Politics, political theorist Bonnie Honig proposes a 'Jewish political theology' to support radical democratic theory. Instead of taking Carl Schmitt as the starting point for reflection on the political significance of religious concepts, Honig takes Franz Rosenzweig. This review essay enters Honig's work into conversations about political theology, and it explores the significance and novelty of her position. It suggests that Honig's argument repeatedly runs aground for the same reason: she relies on a background image of democracy as an ethos rather than as a tradition requiring faith."
Dominic O'Sullivan (Charles Sturt University), "Reconciliation: The Political Theological Nexus in Australasian Indigenous Public Policy", International Journal of Public Theology, 4 (4), 2010: pp. 426-45.
Abstract: "Reconciliation brings together Christological and anthropological dimensions of human thought to illustrate the nexus between religious principles and political means. For the state reconciliation is concerned with social cohesion and political stability. For the church, it extends the sacramental notion of reconciliation between God and penitent to public relationships. This article examines Roman Catholic contributions to secular reconciliation debates. It shows how religious precepts create moral imperatives to engagement with secular discourses as a necessary element of Christian mission. It also argues that the church's role in the disruption of indigenous societies creates an additional moral imperative to engage in reconciliation as mission and to articulate a Christian vision of indigenous rights."
Kalemba Mwambazambi (University of South Africa), "A missiological glance at South African Black Theology", Verbum et Ecclesia, 31 (1), 2010: without page numbers. Refereed electronic journal, full text available online:
www.ve.org.za/index.php/VE/article/view/53/412
Abstract: "Black South African theologians created South African Black theology during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a conscious and theological dimension of the liberation struggle against apartheid. They drew inspiration from African-American theology, biblical hermeneutics and the raw material of their own experiences and suffering, whilst simultaneously creating a new theological paradigm and political orientation to liberate Black South Africans from apartheid and European domination. Inevitably, South African Black theology was a liberation theology aimed at helping to eradicate the existing socio-political order. This article gave a missiological overview of Black theology and examined and assessed the relevance of this theology to contemporary post-apartheid South Africa. The critical-theological research method was used."
Showing posts with label Jewish political theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jewish political theology. Show all posts
17 February 2011
08 October 2010
CONF: 2010 meeting of the American Academy of Religion
Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 30 October-1 November 2010
The increase in panels and papers accepted concerned with political theology that was to be observed at last year's AAR meeting continues this year.
First, the multi-year "Theology and the Political Consultation" will resume with a panel titled "Political Theology, Jewish, and Democratic: A Discussion of Bonnie Honig's Emergency Politics (Princeton University Press, 2009)" (A30-336, 30 October, 4.00-6.30 pm, Marriott Marquis/Marquis Ballroom C).
Description: "If Carl Schmitt offers an account of Christian political theology, what would a Jewish political theology look like? Instead of focusing on the exceptional moment, it would see every moment as exceptional. Instead of focusing on a single, transcendent sovereign, it would focus on sovereignty shared by a people and its leaders. Instead of opposing administrative discretion to juridical determinism, it would see discretion in law and determinism in administrative actions. Carl Schmitt is displaced by Franz Rosenzweig. In short, Jewish political theology is the political theology of democratic theory. These are among the claims of Bonnie Honig's Emergency Politics: Paradox, Law, Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2009). This panel will feature a critical dialogue about Honig's text. Some panelists will engage the text from a Jewish studies perspective, examining its extensive use of Rosenzweig and other Jewish sources; other panelists will engage the text as an intervention in conversations about religion and democratic theory, examining the provocative claims it makes about, for example, the political significance of miracles."
Participants: Gregory Kaplan (Rice University), presiding; Jeffrey Stout (Princeton); Nancy Levene (Indiana University); Martin Kavka (Florida State University); George Shulman (New York University); and Bonnie Honig (Northwestern University), responding
Second, the "Study of Judaism Section" and the "Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group" have organized a panel on "Antisemitism and Its Afterlives: Christian Studies of Judaism and the Construction of Modernity" (A31-309, 31 October, 5.00-6.30 pm, Marriott Marquis/M105).
Description: "Recent reevaluations of the secular order, for example that of Gil Anidjar, have pointed to the continuity of that order with the self-definition of Christian tradition against Judaism. Secular modernity borrowed certain of its narratives – notably, universalism and supersessionism – from Paul's definition of the Gospel as a universal dispensation of 'grace' that transcended the particularities of Jewish 'law.' Philosophers such as Jacob Taubes, Giorgio Agamben, and Alain Badiou have rediscovered the relevance of such theological categories for an understanding of the political theology of modernity. However, much historical work remains to be done to show how these categories were appropriated, altered, and sometimes inverted in the course of the self-transformation of European Christian civilization into an ostensibly secular modernity. Each of the papers on this panel contributes to filling in this genealogy, by retracing a part of the complex web of connections that connects modernity to earlier forms of Christian anti-Judaism. From Deists and their opponents in 17th-century England, to the Enlightenment philosophy of Immanuel Kant, to the 20th-century sociological project of Talcott Parsons, Judaism played a key role as the primary 'Other,' stubborn residue, and chief stumbling-block against which modernity defined itself."
Participants: Jerome Copulsky (Goucher College); Robert Yelle (University of Memphis), "Antisemitism at the Roots of Modern Ecumenicalism: The Deist Construction of 'Natural Religion' against Jewish Ritual and Revelation"; Bruce Rosenstock (University of Illinois), "Judaism and the Dialectical History of Religion: The Afterlife of Bishop Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses"; Leah Hochman (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion), "Who's the (Ugly) Stick-in-the-Mud?: Kant, Judaism, and (Beauty's) Freedom"; and Jonathan Judaken (University of Memphis), "Talcott Parsons, Ambivalent Liberalism, and the Sociology of Modern Anti-Semitism"
Third, the "Explorations in Theology and the Apocalyptic" working group offers a panel on "Aspects of the Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz" (M31-401, 31 October, 6.30-9.00 pm, Marriott Marquis/L403).
Description: "This is the second of two sessions exploring apocalyptic themes in contemporary Christian theology."
Participants: Benjamin Myers (Charles Sturt University), presiding; Matthew Eggemeier (College of the Holy Cross), "Christianity or Nihilism?: The Apocalyptic Discourses of Johann Baptist Metz and Friedrich Nietzsche"; Jason McKinney (University of Toronto), "The Sins of the Father: Suffering, Guilt, and Redemption in Benjamin and Metz"; Christopher Craig Brittain (University of Aberdeen), "Positivity and Negativity in Political Theology: Metz and Adorno on the Nature of Apocalyptic Hope"; and Kyle Gingerich Hiebert (University of Manchester), "The Architectonics of Hope: On the Tragic Configuration of Johann Baptist Metz's New Political Theology"
Fourth, the "Theology of Martin Luther King Jr. Consultation" has put together a panel on "The Promised Land: Political Theology and Contemporary Social Movements" (A30-236, 30 October, 1.00-3.30 pm, Marriott Marquis/Marquis Ballroom B).
Participants: Hak Joon Lee (New Brunswick Theological Seminary), presiding; Lane Van Ham (University of Arizona), "Undocumented Immigration and the 'World House': Spirituality in the Immigrant Advocacy Movement"; Rosemary P. Carbine (Whittier College), "Transforming Spaces for Social Change: Prophetic Praxis in the United States Civil Rights and New Sanctuary Movements"; Karen V. Guth (University of Virginia), "Beyond Nonviolence: The Feminist/Womanist Political Theology of Martin Luther King Jr."; Frederick L. Ware (Howard University), "'Prophesy the Common Good!': The Promise and Problem of Moral Realism in the Political Theology of Martin Luther King Jr."; Rosetta E. Ross (Spelman College), responding
Fifth, "The Word Made Fresh", an annual lectureship held in conjunction with the Society of Evangelical Scholars (M29-411, 29 October, 7.00-9.00 pm, Marriott Marquis/International 6).
Description: "The Word Made Fresh [...] seeks to stimulate creative dialogue among scholars on themes reflective of evangelical Christianity".
Participants: Thomas Oord (Northwest Nazarene University), presiding; Amos Yong (Regent University), "In the Days of Caesar: Pentecostalism and Political Theology"; J. Kameron Carter (Duke University), responding; Serene Jones (Union Theological Seminary), responding; Graham Ward (University of Manchester), responding
Sixth, the "Søren Kierkegaard Society" panel on "Selfhood, Church, and Society" (M30-124, 30 October, 9.00 am-12.00 pm, Marriott Marquis/International 3) includes a paper by Robert L. Perkins (Stetson University), "Kierkegaard's Political Theology".
Seventh, the "Religion and Politics Section" panel on "Religion and Politics in Theory and Practice" (A31-105, 31 October, 9.00-11.30 am, Marriott Marquis/A706) includes a paper by John Senior (Emory University), "Tradition Reconsidered: Political Theology, Narrative, and the Formation of Political Identities".
Eight, the "Reformed Theology and History Group" panel on "Reformed Churches and Historically Marginalized People" (A30-325, 30 October, 4.00-6.30 pm, Marriott Marquis/A706) includes a paper by Matthew J. Tuininga (Emory University), "Reformulating the Two Kingdoms Paradigm: A Political Theological Approach to Racism".
The AAR annual meeting online programme (including abstracts of the papers, if provided) is available and searchable at:
http://meeting.aarweb.org/
Further information and registration:
www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/default.asp
The increase in panels and papers accepted concerned with political theology that was to be observed at last year's AAR meeting continues this year.
First, the multi-year "Theology and the Political Consultation" will resume with a panel titled "Political Theology, Jewish, and Democratic: A Discussion of Bonnie Honig's Emergency Politics (Princeton University Press, 2009)" (A30-336, 30 October, 4.00-6.30 pm, Marriott Marquis/Marquis Ballroom C).
Description: "If Carl Schmitt offers an account of Christian political theology, what would a Jewish political theology look like? Instead of focusing on the exceptional moment, it would see every moment as exceptional. Instead of focusing on a single, transcendent sovereign, it would focus on sovereignty shared by a people and its leaders. Instead of opposing administrative discretion to juridical determinism, it would see discretion in law and determinism in administrative actions. Carl Schmitt is displaced by Franz Rosenzweig. In short, Jewish political theology is the political theology of democratic theory. These are among the claims of Bonnie Honig's Emergency Politics: Paradox, Law, Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2009). This panel will feature a critical dialogue about Honig's text. Some panelists will engage the text from a Jewish studies perspective, examining its extensive use of Rosenzweig and other Jewish sources; other panelists will engage the text as an intervention in conversations about religion and democratic theory, examining the provocative claims it makes about, for example, the political significance of miracles."
Participants: Gregory Kaplan (Rice University), presiding; Jeffrey Stout (Princeton); Nancy Levene (Indiana University); Martin Kavka (Florida State University); George Shulman (New York University); and Bonnie Honig (Northwestern University), responding
Second, the "Study of Judaism Section" and the "Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group" have organized a panel on "Antisemitism and Its Afterlives: Christian Studies of Judaism and the Construction of Modernity" (A31-309, 31 October, 5.00-6.30 pm, Marriott Marquis/M105).
Description: "Recent reevaluations of the secular order, for example that of Gil Anidjar, have pointed to the continuity of that order with the self-definition of Christian tradition against Judaism. Secular modernity borrowed certain of its narratives – notably, universalism and supersessionism – from Paul's definition of the Gospel as a universal dispensation of 'grace' that transcended the particularities of Jewish 'law.' Philosophers such as Jacob Taubes, Giorgio Agamben, and Alain Badiou have rediscovered the relevance of such theological categories for an understanding of the political theology of modernity. However, much historical work remains to be done to show how these categories were appropriated, altered, and sometimes inverted in the course of the self-transformation of European Christian civilization into an ostensibly secular modernity. Each of the papers on this panel contributes to filling in this genealogy, by retracing a part of the complex web of connections that connects modernity to earlier forms of Christian anti-Judaism. From Deists and their opponents in 17th-century England, to the Enlightenment philosophy of Immanuel Kant, to the 20th-century sociological project of Talcott Parsons, Judaism played a key role as the primary 'Other,' stubborn residue, and chief stumbling-block against which modernity defined itself."
Participants: Jerome Copulsky (Goucher College); Robert Yelle (University of Memphis), "Antisemitism at the Roots of Modern Ecumenicalism: The Deist Construction of 'Natural Religion' against Jewish Ritual and Revelation"; Bruce Rosenstock (University of Illinois), "Judaism and the Dialectical History of Religion: The Afterlife of Bishop Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses"; Leah Hochman (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion), "Who's the (Ugly) Stick-in-the-Mud?: Kant, Judaism, and (Beauty's) Freedom"; and Jonathan Judaken (University of Memphis), "Talcott Parsons, Ambivalent Liberalism, and the Sociology of Modern Anti-Semitism"
Third, the "Explorations in Theology and the Apocalyptic" working group offers a panel on "Aspects of the Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz" (M31-401, 31 October, 6.30-9.00 pm, Marriott Marquis/L403).
Description: "This is the second of two sessions exploring apocalyptic themes in contemporary Christian theology."
Participants: Benjamin Myers (Charles Sturt University), presiding; Matthew Eggemeier (College of the Holy Cross), "Christianity or Nihilism?: The Apocalyptic Discourses of Johann Baptist Metz and Friedrich Nietzsche"; Jason McKinney (University of Toronto), "The Sins of the Father: Suffering, Guilt, and Redemption in Benjamin and Metz"; Christopher Craig Brittain (University of Aberdeen), "Positivity and Negativity in Political Theology: Metz and Adorno on the Nature of Apocalyptic Hope"; and Kyle Gingerich Hiebert (University of Manchester), "The Architectonics of Hope: On the Tragic Configuration of Johann Baptist Metz's New Political Theology"
Fourth, the "Theology of Martin Luther King Jr. Consultation" has put together a panel on "The Promised Land: Political Theology and Contemporary Social Movements" (A30-236, 30 October, 1.00-3.30 pm, Marriott Marquis/Marquis Ballroom B).
Participants: Hak Joon Lee (New Brunswick Theological Seminary), presiding; Lane Van Ham (University of Arizona), "Undocumented Immigration and the 'World House': Spirituality in the Immigrant Advocacy Movement"; Rosemary P. Carbine (Whittier College), "Transforming Spaces for Social Change: Prophetic Praxis in the United States Civil Rights and New Sanctuary Movements"; Karen V. Guth (University of Virginia), "Beyond Nonviolence: The Feminist/Womanist Political Theology of Martin Luther King Jr."; Frederick L. Ware (Howard University), "'Prophesy the Common Good!': The Promise and Problem of Moral Realism in the Political Theology of Martin Luther King Jr."; Rosetta E. Ross (Spelman College), responding
Fifth, "The Word Made Fresh", an annual lectureship held in conjunction with the Society of Evangelical Scholars (M29-411, 29 October, 7.00-9.00 pm, Marriott Marquis/International 6).
Description: "The Word Made Fresh [...] seeks to stimulate creative dialogue among scholars on themes reflective of evangelical Christianity".
Participants: Thomas Oord (Northwest Nazarene University), presiding; Amos Yong (Regent University), "In the Days of Caesar: Pentecostalism and Political Theology"; J. Kameron Carter (Duke University), responding; Serene Jones (Union Theological Seminary), responding; Graham Ward (University of Manchester), responding
Sixth, the "Søren Kierkegaard Society" panel on "Selfhood, Church, and Society" (M30-124, 30 October, 9.00 am-12.00 pm, Marriott Marquis/International 3) includes a paper by Robert L. Perkins (Stetson University), "Kierkegaard's Political Theology".
Seventh, the "Religion and Politics Section" panel on "Religion and Politics in Theory and Practice" (A31-105, 31 October, 9.00-11.30 am, Marriott Marquis/A706) includes a paper by John Senior (Emory University), "Tradition Reconsidered: Political Theology, Narrative, and the Formation of Political Identities".
Eight, the "Reformed Theology and History Group" panel on "Reformed Churches and Historically Marginalized People" (A30-325, 30 October, 4.00-6.30 pm, Marriott Marquis/A706) includes a paper by Matthew J. Tuininga (Emory University), "Reformulating the Two Kingdoms Paradigm: A Political Theological Approach to Racism".
The AAR annual meeting online programme (including abstracts of the papers, if provided) is available and searchable at:
http://meeting.aarweb.org/
Further information and registration:
www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/default.asp
30 September 2010
CONF: Judaism and Political Theology
International conference "Traces of Judaism in Contemporary Thought" of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) of Krakow, Miodowa st. 24, Poland, 4-6 October 2010
www.jcckrakow.org/en/content/traces-judaism-contemporary-thought
This conference features a panel on "Judaism and Political Theology" (5 October, 9.30-11.30 am) with the following papers: Arthur Bradley (Lancaster University), "City of Cacos: The Savage and [the Sovereign] in Augustine's City of God XIX"; Michael Dillon (Lancaster University), "Cocking the Question: Disarming Answers"; and Petar Bojanić (University of Belgrade), "'Pazifistischer Zug': Franz Rosenzweig's 'Messianic Politics' and Ethics of War".
No abstracts provided by the organizers.
Further information (full programme, JCC contact details, etc.) is to be found on the above website.
www.jcckrakow.org/en/content/traces-judaism-contemporary-thought
This conference features a panel on "Judaism and Political Theology" (5 October, 9.30-11.30 am) with the following papers: Arthur Bradley (Lancaster University), "City of Cacos: The Savage and [the Sovereign] in Augustine's City of God XIX"; Michael Dillon (Lancaster University), "Cocking the Question: Disarming Answers"; and Petar Bojanić (University of Belgrade), "'Pazifistischer Zug': Franz Rosenzweig's 'Messianic Politics' and Ethics of War".
No abstracts provided by the organizers.
Further information (full programme, JCC contact details, etc.) is to be found on the above website.
28 December 2009
Book: Jacob Taubes' "Occidental Eschatology"
These days, Stanford University Press is publishing two new books with texts by Jacob Taubes (author of "The Political Theology of Paul"). First up is the English translation of Taubes' 1947 doctoral dissertation, "Occidental Eschatology" (Abendländische Eschatologie; translated from German with a preface by David Ratmoko):
www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=16921
Publisher's description: Taubes' "Occidental Eschatology", "the one book he published in his lifetime, seeks to renegotiate the historical synthesis and spiritual legacy of the West through the study of apocalypticism. Covering the origins of apocalypticism from Hebrew prophecy through antiquity and early Christianity to its medieval revival in Joachim of Fiore, Taubes reveals its later secularized forms in Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard. His aim is to show the lasting influence of revolutionary, messianic teleology on Western philosophy, history, and politics.
"Combining painstaking scholarship with an unmatched scope of reference, Taubes takes a comprehensive approach to the twin focuses of political theology and philosophy of history. He argues that acceptance of the idea that time will one day come to an end has profound implications for political thought. If natural time is experienced as an eternal cycle of events, 'history' is the realm of time in which human actions can make decisions to alter the progression of events. This philosophy asks that individuals take responsibility for their own actions and resist authority that claims to act on their behalf. Whereas universal history is written by the victors, the messianic or apocalyptic event enters history and gives a voice to the oppressed."
Stanford University Press is also releasing "From Cult to Culture: Fragments Toward a Critique of Historical Reason" (edited by Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert and Amir Engel, with a preface by Aleida and Jan Assmann): "The essays presented here represent the fruit of conversations, conferences, and workshops that [Taubes] organized over the course of his career."
www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=16921
Publisher's description: Taubes' "Occidental Eschatology", "the one book he published in his lifetime, seeks to renegotiate the historical synthesis and spiritual legacy of the West through the study of apocalypticism. Covering the origins of apocalypticism from Hebrew prophecy through antiquity and early Christianity to its medieval revival in Joachim of Fiore, Taubes reveals its later secularized forms in Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard. His aim is to show the lasting influence of revolutionary, messianic teleology on Western philosophy, history, and politics.
"Combining painstaking scholarship with an unmatched scope of reference, Taubes takes a comprehensive approach to the twin focuses of political theology and philosophy of history. He argues that acceptance of the idea that time will one day come to an end has profound implications for political thought. If natural time is experienced as an eternal cycle of events, 'history' is the realm of time in which human actions can make decisions to alter the progression of events. This philosophy asks that individuals take responsibility for their own actions and resist authority that claims to act on their behalf. Whereas universal history is written by the victors, the messianic or apocalyptic event enters history and gives a voice to the oppressed."
Stanford University Press is also releasing "From Cult to Culture: Fragments Toward a Critique of Historical Reason" (edited by Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert and Amir Engel, with a preface by Aleida and Jan Assmann): "The essays presented here represent the fruit of conversations, conferences, and workshops that [Taubes] organized over the course of his career."
23 December 2009
Book: The Political Theology of Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh
Paul Eidelberg (former Professor of Political Science, Bar-Ilan University) has written a book seeking to compare Jewish political theology and the political theology of the American Founding Fathers: "Toward a Renaissance of Israel and America: The Political Theology of Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh" (Lightcatcher Books, November 2009).
www.lightcatcherbooks.com/products_books_Renaissance.shtml
From the publisher's description: "The American people know hardly anything about the political theology of their Declaration of Independence, and are therefore ignorant of the political philosophy that inspired the Framers of the American Constitution. Similarly, most people in Israel are ignorant of the liberality and magnanimity of the Torah's constitution of government. Both nations are in dire need of Rabbi Benamozegh's teachings. Benamozegh's erudition, his knowledge of the wisdom of 'Jerusalem and Athens,' the cities that fructified Western civilization, can help us overcome the enemy of civilization, totalitarian Islam."
US-born Israeli Paul Eidelberg received his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago, where he studied under Leo Strauss. He is the founder and president of the Jerusalem-based Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.
www.lightcatcherbooks.com/products_books_Renaissance.shtml
From the publisher's description: "The American people know hardly anything about the political theology of their Declaration of Independence, and are therefore ignorant of the political philosophy that inspired the Framers of the American Constitution. Similarly, most people in Israel are ignorant of the liberality and magnanimity of the Torah's constitution of government. Both nations are in dire need of Rabbi Benamozegh's teachings. Benamozegh's erudition, his knowledge of the wisdom of 'Jerusalem and Athens,' the cities that fructified Western civilization, can help us overcome the enemy of civilization, totalitarian Islam."
US-born Israeli Paul Eidelberg received his doctoral degree at the University of Chicago, where he studied under Leo Strauss. He is the founder and president of the Jerusalem-based Foundation for Constitutional Democracy.
08 November 2009
Public lecture: The Cosmopolitan Neighborhood
Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 296, Portland, Oregon, USA, 19 November 2009, 6.30 pm
Kenneth Reinhard (UCLA) will be speaking on "The Cosmopolitan Neighborhood: Political Theological Models for Living in an Open World".
www.publichumanities.pdx.edu/ResearchGroups/cosmo.html
What does the simultaneously political and theological imperative to "love thy neighbor" suggest to us in the challenging contemporary era of globalization? What philosophical and ethical trajectories can be drawn from the ancient injunction of the Book of Leviticus to the arena of the international community?
For Kenneth Reinhard, an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UCLA, "neighbor love" is as a core element in what he understands to be the tradition of "political theology" in the West.
Reinhard is an expert in early modern English literature, Shakespeare, psychoanalysis, Jewish studies, and critical theory. He is the author, with Slavoj Žižek and Eric Santner, of "The Neighbor: Three Inquiries in Political Theology" (University of Chicago Press, 2005). Currently, he is writing a book on the ethics of the neighbor in religion (Torah, Talmud, and Patristic writings), philosophy (Kant, Kierkegaard, Adorno, Rosenzweig, and Levinas), and psychoanalysis (Freud and Lacan) for Princeton University Press.
If you have any questions regarding this event, please feel free to contact the Portland Center for Public Humanities: publichumanities@pdx.edu
The event is free and open to the public.
Kenneth Reinhard (UCLA) will be speaking on "The Cosmopolitan Neighborhood: Political Theological Models for Living in an Open World".
www.publichumanities.pdx.edu/ResearchGroups/cosmo.html
What does the simultaneously political and theological imperative to "love thy neighbor" suggest to us in the challenging contemporary era of globalization? What philosophical and ethical trajectories can be drawn from the ancient injunction of the Book of Leviticus to the arena of the international community?
For Kenneth Reinhard, an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UCLA, "neighbor love" is as a core element in what he understands to be the tradition of "political theology" in the West.
Reinhard is an expert in early modern English literature, Shakespeare, psychoanalysis, Jewish studies, and critical theory. He is the author, with Slavoj Žižek and Eric Santner, of "The Neighbor: Three Inquiries in Political Theology" (University of Chicago Press, 2005). Currently, he is writing a book on the ethics of the neighbor in religion (Torah, Talmud, and Patristic writings), philosophy (Kant, Kierkegaard, Adorno, Rosenzweig, and Levinas), and psychoanalysis (Freud and Lacan) for Princeton University Press.
If you have any questions regarding this event, please feel free to contact the Portland Center for Public Humanities: publichumanities@pdx.edu
The event is free and open to the public.
21 October 2009
Book: "Political Theologies in the Holy Land"
A number of books on political theology in Israel and Jewish political theology have been released recently or about to be released by authors and editors associated with the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and in particular with a former study group/research programme of the latter on political theology, which was discontinued about two years ago.
Among them, David Ohana (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) wrote a book on "Political Theologies in the Holy Land: Israeli Messianism and Its Critics" (Routledge, 15 October 2009):
www.routledge.com/books/Political-Theologies-in-the-Holy-Land-isbn9780415491686
Publisher's description: "This book examines the role of messianism in Zionist ideology, from the birth of the Zionist movement through to the present. Is shows how messianism is not just a religious or philosophical term but a very tangible political practice and theology which has shaped Israeli identity.
"The author explores key issues such as: the current presence of messianism in the Israeli public sphere and the debates with [J]ewish settlers in the occupied territories after the 1967 war; the difference between transcendental messianism and [P]romethean messianism; the disparity between the political ideology and political practice in the history of Israel; the evolution of the messianic idea in the actions of David Ben-Gurion; the debate between Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Isaiah Leibowitz, J.L. Talmon and other intellectual figures with Ben-Gurion; the implications of political theology and the presence of messianic ideas in Israeli politics.
"As the first book to examine the messianism in Israeli debate since the creation of the Israeli state, it will be particularly relevant for students and scholars of Political Science, modern intellectual history, Israel studies, Judaism and messianism."
Those able to read Hebrew may be equally interested in a recent book edited by Christoph Schmidt (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and co-edited by Eli Schonfeld (University of Tel Aviv and Hebrew University): "Ha-Elohim lo yealem dom: ha-moderna ha-yehudit ve-ha-teologia ha-politit" (God will not stand still: Jewish modernity and political theology; Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House, Tel Aviv, 2009).
www.vanleer.org.il/eng/content.asp?id=330
According to a review of this book in today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, it appears to be on exactly the same subject matter as the book by Ohana, who is present with a chapter in Schmidt's collection.
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Hakibbutz Hameuchad also just published "State of exception and state of emergency" (translation), edited by Yehouda Shenhav, Christoph Schmidt and Shimshon Zelniker. Presumably this book too is on political theology. Unfortunately, I don't have the original Hebrew title.
Among them, David Ohana (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) wrote a book on "Political Theologies in the Holy Land: Israeli Messianism and Its Critics" (Routledge, 15 October 2009):
www.routledge.com/books/Political-Theologies-in-the-Holy-Land-isbn9780415491686
Publisher's description: "This book examines the role of messianism in Zionist ideology, from the birth of the Zionist movement through to the present. Is shows how messianism is not just a religious or philosophical term but a very tangible political practice and theology which has shaped Israeli identity.
"The author explores key issues such as: the current presence of messianism in the Israeli public sphere and the debates with [J]ewish settlers in the occupied territories after the 1967 war; the difference between transcendental messianism and [P]romethean messianism; the disparity between the political ideology and political practice in the history of Israel; the evolution of the messianic idea in the actions of David Ben-Gurion; the debate between Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Isaiah Leibowitz, J.L. Talmon and other intellectual figures with Ben-Gurion; the implications of political theology and the presence of messianic ideas in Israeli politics.
"As the first book to examine the messianism in Israeli debate since the creation of the Israeli state, it will be particularly relevant for students and scholars of Political Science, modern intellectual history, Israel studies, Judaism and messianism."
Those able to read Hebrew may be equally interested in a recent book edited by Christoph Schmidt (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and co-edited by Eli Schonfeld (University of Tel Aviv and Hebrew University): "Ha-Elohim lo yealem dom: ha-moderna ha-yehudit ve-ha-teologia ha-politit" (God will not stand still: Jewish modernity and political theology; Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House, Tel Aviv, 2009).
www.vanleer.org.il/eng/content.asp?id=330
According to a review of this book in today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, it appears to be on exactly the same subject matter as the book by Ohana, who is present with a chapter in Schmidt's collection.
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Hakibbutz Hameuchad also just published "State of exception and state of emergency" (translation), edited by Yehouda Shenhav, Christoph Schmidt and Shimshon Zelniker. Presumably this book too is on political theology. Unfortunately, I don't have the original Hebrew title.
10 October 2009
CFP: "Tikvah Journal for Jewish Thought" on religion and reason
Call for papers for the "Tikvah Journal for Jewish Thought", the new graduate online journal of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto.
Proposals on (Jewish) political theology are explicitly welcome.
The first issue of the "Tikvah Journal for Jewish Thought" invites explorations on the theme: "Religion and Reason". Historically, the process of secularization brought about a debate among philosophers, politicians, and theologians concerning the role of religion in the public sphere and distinguishing secular reason from religious conviction. Yet questions pertaining to the nature of the relation between religion and reason are as old as theology and philosophy. The editors welcome papers addressing such questions, spanning the ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern eras, and drawing from a broad range of disciplinary fields.
Suggested topics include: the crisis of the Enlightenment: skepticism and naturalism; the "end" of metaphysics; faith, rational justification, and common sense; divine attributes and allegorical thought; translation: biblical terms and philosophical concepts or categories; the role of religion in the public sphere; the nature of justification in religious and secular laws; religious calendars and political bonds; political theology; modern alienation
Suggested interlocutors include: Aristotle; Philo of Alexandria; Plotinus; Al-Farabi; Al-Ghazali; Maimonides; Shmuel Ibn Tibbon; Hasdai Crescas; Abarbanel; Descartes; Spinoza; Leibniz; Kant; Fichte; Schelling; Hegel; Kierkegaard; Hermann Cohen; Martin Buber; Franz Rosenzweig; Walter Benjamin; Hans-Georg Gadamer; Emmanuel Lévinas; Paul Ricoeur
Submission details: Please send an abstract no longer than 500 words and prepared for "blind-review" (with the author's name and institutional affiliation appearing on a separate page) to the following e-mail address: tikvahjournal@gmail.com
Deadline: 15 November 2009
If accepted, you will be asked to submit a paper ranging in length between 5,000 and 7,000 words by 15 January 2010. Accepted papers will appear in Vol. 1 of the "Tikvah Journal for Jewish Thought" late in the spring of 2010.
Proposals on (Jewish) political theology are explicitly welcome.
The first issue of the "Tikvah Journal for Jewish Thought" invites explorations on the theme: "Religion and Reason". Historically, the process of secularization brought about a debate among philosophers, politicians, and theologians concerning the role of religion in the public sphere and distinguishing secular reason from religious conviction. Yet questions pertaining to the nature of the relation between religion and reason are as old as theology and philosophy. The editors welcome papers addressing such questions, spanning the ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern eras, and drawing from a broad range of disciplinary fields.
Suggested topics include: the crisis of the Enlightenment: skepticism and naturalism; the "end" of metaphysics; faith, rational justification, and common sense; divine attributes and allegorical thought; translation: biblical terms and philosophical concepts or categories; the role of religion in the public sphere; the nature of justification in religious and secular laws; religious calendars and political bonds; political theology; modern alienation
Suggested interlocutors include: Aristotle; Philo of Alexandria; Plotinus; Al-Farabi; Al-Ghazali; Maimonides; Shmuel Ibn Tibbon; Hasdai Crescas; Abarbanel; Descartes; Spinoza; Leibniz; Kant; Fichte; Schelling; Hegel; Kierkegaard; Hermann Cohen; Martin Buber; Franz Rosenzweig; Walter Benjamin; Hans-Georg Gadamer; Emmanuel Lévinas; Paul Ricoeur
Submission details: Please send an abstract no longer than 500 words and prepared for "blind-review" (with the author's name and institutional affiliation appearing on a separate page) to the following e-mail address: tikvahjournal@gmail.com
Deadline: 15 November 2009
If accepted, you will be asked to submit a paper ranging in length between 5,000 and 7,000 words by 15 January 2010. Accepted papers will appear in Vol. 1 of the "Tikvah Journal for Jewish Thought" late in the spring of 2010.
29 September 2009
CONF: Association for Jewish Studies 2009 annual conference
41st Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California, USA,
20-22 December 2009
This year's annual conference of the AJS features a multi-panel session on "Modern Jewish Thought and Theology" with a particular interest in political theology.
Scheduled panels include, firstly, "Jacob Taubes's Political Theology in Light of His Relationship to Carl Schmitt" (21 December, 2-4 pm, Room 3):
Abstract: The panel is devoted to Jacob Taubes, the Jewish thinker, historian of religion, gnosticism, and apocalyptic strains in Judaism and Christianity, who influenced generations of scholars during his academic career at the Hebrew University, Harvard, Columbia, the Free University at Berlin, and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris, but whose work has elicited much wider attention of late. This is due, in part, to a general, renewed interest in the problem of political theology, due, as well, to the engagement with his work on the part of Giorgio Agamben and others, but chiefly to the recent translation of his powerful late lectures on "The Political Theology of Paul". Taubes's articles are about to be collected for the first time in an English-language edition, and more is to follow. Taubes was a prodigious letter writer, and the first correspondence to be published is the one between Taubes and the political theorist Carl Schmitt, 35 years his senior, with whose work Taubes was deeply engaged since the immediate postwar period while keeping a measured distance until the late 1970s, when the two men exchanged a series of letters and Taubes visited Schmitt in his remote refuge in Plettenberg.
The panel is led by Martin Treml's presentation on the letters exchanged between Taubes and Schmitt. Treml is currently finishing his edition of the Taubes-Schmitt correspondence at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin, which houses Taubes's literary estate. Nitzan Lebovic (Sussex) and Arnd Wedemeyer (Princeton), who both have conducted research at the Taubes Archive, will discuss the context of the correspondence and its implications for Taubes's conception of political theology. Lebovic will reconstruct Taubes's unique mobilization of apocalypticism for his antinomian conception of the law, devised, Lebovic argues, not only as an answer to Schmitt's theopolitical antiliberalism, but also to Martin Buber's own reaction against Schmitt. Wedemeyer will focus on one particular problem of Pauline theology, the so-called "curse of the law", in the context both of Taubes's relation to Schmitt, as well as to previous Jewish interpreters of Paul.
Second panel: "Political Theology and Judaism in Spinoza, Mendelssohn and Fackenheim" (22 December, 8.30-10.30 am, Room 9):
Abstract: If "political theology" means a politics guided by theological considerations and/or a theology guided by political considerations, then if these considerations are in tension or incompatible, which should take priority? Our panel examines this question in three key modern Jewish thinkers. For each, "politics" means liberal democracy (or, for Mendelssohn, constitutional monarchy), and "theology" means biblical theology (or, for Spinoza and Mendelssohn, some "rationalist" equivalent).
Joshua Parens (Dallas) explores what Spinoza's "Ethics" indicates about his political theology in "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus" (TTP). What does the congeniality between TTP and the "rationalist" theology of "Ethics", its introduction, teach about Spinoza's political theology: if the "Ethics" provides deeper insight into Spinoza's modified version of biblical theology in TTP than does TTP by itself, is the ground for that theology biblical or utilitarian, as TTP leads us to suspect?
Martin D. Yaffe (North Texas) asks how well Mendelssohn's rationalist theology serves to underwrite his practical-political argument for Christian-Jewish tolerance. Yaffe compares Mendelssohn's theologically-grounded argument with Lessing's, which Mendelssohn professes not to understand. Lessing's argument, Yaffe finds, is more "political" than "theological" – being designed not just to rubber-stamp its readers' Christian theology, but to expand that theology towards increased appreciation and tolerance for Judaism. Mendelssohn's rationalist political theology fails to come to grips with Lessing's politically (and philosophically) motivated irony.
Sharon Portnoff (Connecticut College) suggests that Fackenheim's political theology is located in his "quasi-historicism". She suggests that Fackenheim was well aware of the dangers of incorporating historicism into Jewish theology and explores the way in which Fackenheim navigated these dangers. She finds that Fackenheim's quasi-historicism both serves to defend Jews and Judaism politically and also, paradoxically, remains open to the political possibility that it evolve into its own obsolescence.
Kenneth Green (Toronto) considers the phrase "demonic evil" in Fackenheim's mature thought. He asks how much Fackenheim's related subterranean emphasis on the devil is a significant even if largely unrecognized factor in his theological response to the Holocaust and radical evil. Green raises a question with regard to Fackenheim's political theology: because rejection of the devil issues in concerted political action, is it as a direct consequence that he disallow as immoral any political neutrality on such political action?
Further panels of particular interest to political theology include "Monotheism and Its Discontents" (21 December, 8.30-10.30 am, Room 12); "Religion, Politics, Ethics" – including a paper "Determined to be Free: Spinoza's Political Theology of Freedom" by Steven H. Frankel (Xavier University) – (22 December, 10.45 am-12.45 pm, Room 9); and "Rosenzweig and Arendt" – including a paper "'The Light of the Public Obscures Everything': Arendt and the Public Threat of Political Theology" by Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft (Berkeley) – (20 December, 2-4 pm, Room 11).
The detailed conference programme can be browsed and searched here:
http://64.112.226.77/one/ajs/ajs09/index.php?cmd=ajs09&id=
General conference information (including a link to the registration page) is to be found at:
www.ajsnet.org/generalinfo.htm
20-22 December 2009
This year's annual conference of the AJS features a multi-panel session on "Modern Jewish Thought and Theology" with a particular interest in political theology.
Scheduled panels include, firstly, "Jacob Taubes's Political Theology in Light of His Relationship to Carl Schmitt" (21 December, 2-4 pm, Room 3):
Abstract: The panel is devoted to Jacob Taubes, the Jewish thinker, historian of religion, gnosticism, and apocalyptic strains in Judaism and Christianity, who influenced generations of scholars during his academic career at the Hebrew University, Harvard, Columbia, the Free University at Berlin, and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris, but whose work has elicited much wider attention of late. This is due, in part, to a general, renewed interest in the problem of political theology, due, as well, to the engagement with his work on the part of Giorgio Agamben and others, but chiefly to the recent translation of his powerful late lectures on "The Political Theology of Paul". Taubes's articles are about to be collected for the first time in an English-language edition, and more is to follow. Taubes was a prodigious letter writer, and the first correspondence to be published is the one between Taubes and the political theorist Carl Schmitt, 35 years his senior, with whose work Taubes was deeply engaged since the immediate postwar period while keeping a measured distance until the late 1970s, when the two men exchanged a series of letters and Taubes visited Schmitt in his remote refuge in Plettenberg.
The panel is led by Martin Treml's presentation on the letters exchanged between Taubes and Schmitt. Treml is currently finishing his edition of the Taubes-Schmitt correspondence at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin, which houses Taubes's literary estate. Nitzan Lebovic (Sussex) and Arnd Wedemeyer (Princeton), who both have conducted research at the Taubes Archive, will discuss the context of the correspondence and its implications for Taubes's conception of political theology. Lebovic will reconstruct Taubes's unique mobilization of apocalypticism for his antinomian conception of the law, devised, Lebovic argues, not only as an answer to Schmitt's theopolitical antiliberalism, but also to Martin Buber's own reaction against Schmitt. Wedemeyer will focus on one particular problem of Pauline theology, the so-called "curse of the law", in the context both of Taubes's relation to Schmitt, as well as to previous Jewish interpreters of Paul.
Second panel: "Political Theology and Judaism in Spinoza, Mendelssohn and Fackenheim" (22 December, 8.30-10.30 am, Room 9):
Abstract: If "political theology" means a politics guided by theological considerations and/or a theology guided by political considerations, then if these considerations are in tension or incompatible, which should take priority? Our panel examines this question in three key modern Jewish thinkers. For each, "politics" means liberal democracy (or, for Mendelssohn, constitutional monarchy), and "theology" means biblical theology (or, for Spinoza and Mendelssohn, some "rationalist" equivalent).
Joshua Parens (Dallas) explores what Spinoza's "Ethics" indicates about his political theology in "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus" (TTP). What does the congeniality between TTP and the "rationalist" theology of "Ethics", its introduction, teach about Spinoza's political theology: if the "Ethics" provides deeper insight into Spinoza's modified version of biblical theology in TTP than does TTP by itself, is the ground for that theology biblical or utilitarian, as TTP leads us to suspect?
Martin D. Yaffe (North Texas) asks how well Mendelssohn's rationalist theology serves to underwrite his practical-political argument for Christian-Jewish tolerance. Yaffe compares Mendelssohn's theologically-grounded argument with Lessing's, which Mendelssohn professes not to understand. Lessing's argument, Yaffe finds, is more "political" than "theological" – being designed not just to rubber-stamp its readers' Christian theology, but to expand that theology towards increased appreciation and tolerance for Judaism. Mendelssohn's rationalist political theology fails to come to grips with Lessing's politically (and philosophically) motivated irony.
Sharon Portnoff (Connecticut College) suggests that Fackenheim's political theology is located in his "quasi-historicism". She suggests that Fackenheim was well aware of the dangers of incorporating historicism into Jewish theology and explores the way in which Fackenheim navigated these dangers. She finds that Fackenheim's quasi-historicism both serves to defend Jews and Judaism politically and also, paradoxically, remains open to the political possibility that it evolve into its own obsolescence.
Kenneth Green (Toronto) considers the phrase "demonic evil" in Fackenheim's mature thought. He asks how much Fackenheim's related subterranean emphasis on the devil is a significant even if largely unrecognized factor in his theological response to the Holocaust and radical evil. Green raises a question with regard to Fackenheim's political theology: because rejection of the devil issues in concerted political action, is it as a direct consequence that he disallow as immoral any political neutrality on such political action?
Further panels of particular interest to political theology include "Monotheism and Its Discontents" (21 December, 8.30-10.30 am, Room 12); "Religion, Politics, Ethics" – including a paper "Determined to be Free: Spinoza's Political Theology of Freedom" by Steven H. Frankel (Xavier University) – (22 December, 10.45 am-12.45 pm, Room 9); and "Rosenzweig and Arendt" – including a paper "'The Light of the Public Obscures Everything': Arendt and the Public Threat of Political Theology" by Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft (Berkeley) – (20 December, 2-4 pm, Room 11).
The detailed conference programme can be browsed and searched here:
http://64.112.226.77/one/ajs/ajs09/index.php?cmd=ajs09&id=
General conference information (including a link to the registration page) is to be found at:
www.ajsnet.org/generalinfo.htm
15 May 2009
CONF: 2009 meeting of the American Academy of Religion
Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), Montréal, Canada, 7-10 November 2009
In 2009, a significant increase is to be observed in the number of panels accepted for the annual meeting of the AAR that are concerned with political theology.
First, Hent de Vries (Johns Hopkins University) and Corey D. B. Walker (Brown University) invited contributions to a "Theology and the Political Consultation". Besides co-sponsering a panel on "Augustine and Democratic Politics", they also organize as part of their consultation a panel on "Aesthetics, Ethics, and the Politics of Theology" (event locations are only available to members logged in to the AAR’s website.)
The consultation wants to provide a forum for religious studies scholars, philosophers, and theologians to critically reflect on different conceptions of the "political" and draw out the theoretical and practical significance for the tasks of theology. The panel at this year's AAR meeting features papers that critically examine the cultural, political, and philosophical aspects of discourses of aesthetics and ethics as related to historic and contemporary elaborations of political theology and political theory.
Second, the "Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group" organizes a panel on "Political Subjectivity and Praxis: Feminist Theoretical Approaches to Public/Political Theology".
Third, the "Religion and Politics Section" sponsors a panel on "Political Theology: Public and Private, Culture, and Counterculture".
Fourth, the "Philosophy of Religion Section" and the "Study of Judaism Section" co-sponsor a panel on "The Mosaic Distinction: Judaism after Political Theology".
This panel will analyze recent trends in political theology from the perspective of the meaning of the "Mosaic Distinction". Within Judaism, the "Mosaic Distinction" invokes the event of God’s unique and sovereign revelation to the Jewish people at Sinai as lived through Jewish law. The legitimacy of this account is presupposed in varying expressions throughout the prophetic, rabbinic, philosophical, and mystical traditions. Nonetheless, the authority and meaning of this concept has been reinterpreted and challenged by an intellectual movement now commonly referred to as political theology. The purpose of the panel is to offer analyses of how the "Mosaic Distinction" has been dealt with in the work of leading figures in political theology, including Freud, Assmann, Taubes, Žižek, Agamben, and Schmitt, and to present constructive responses by leading contemporary Jewish philosophers.
The AAR annual meeting online programme (including abstracts of the respective papers in each panel) is available and searchable at:
www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/Program_Book/default.asp?ANum=&DayTime=&KeyWord=&Submit=View+Program+Book
Further information and registration:
www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/default.asp
In 2009, a significant increase is to be observed in the number of panels accepted for the annual meeting of the AAR that are concerned with political theology.
First, Hent de Vries (Johns Hopkins University) and Corey D. B. Walker (Brown University) invited contributions to a "Theology and the Political Consultation". Besides co-sponsering a panel on "Augustine and Democratic Politics", they also organize as part of their consultation a panel on "Aesthetics, Ethics, and the Politics of Theology" (event locations are only available to members logged in to the AAR’s website.)
The consultation wants to provide a forum for religious studies scholars, philosophers, and theologians to critically reflect on different conceptions of the "political" and draw out the theoretical and practical significance for the tasks of theology. The panel at this year's AAR meeting features papers that critically examine the cultural, political, and philosophical aspects of discourses of aesthetics and ethics as related to historic and contemporary elaborations of political theology and political theory.
Second, the "Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group" organizes a panel on "Political Subjectivity and Praxis: Feminist Theoretical Approaches to Public/Political Theology".
Third, the "Religion and Politics Section" sponsors a panel on "Political Theology: Public and Private, Culture, and Counterculture".
Fourth, the "Philosophy of Religion Section" and the "Study of Judaism Section" co-sponsor a panel on "The Mosaic Distinction: Judaism after Political Theology".
This panel will analyze recent trends in political theology from the perspective of the meaning of the "Mosaic Distinction". Within Judaism, the "Mosaic Distinction" invokes the event of God’s unique and sovereign revelation to the Jewish people at Sinai as lived through Jewish law. The legitimacy of this account is presupposed in varying expressions throughout the prophetic, rabbinic, philosophical, and mystical traditions. Nonetheless, the authority and meaning of this concept has been reinterpreted and challenged by an intellectual movement now commonly referred to as political theology. The purpose of the panel is to offer analyses of how the "Mosaic Distinction" has been dealt with in the work of leading figures in political theology, including Freud, Assmann, Taubes, Žižek, Agamben, and Schmitt, and to present constructive responses by leading contemporary Jewish philosophers.
The AAR annual meeting online programme (including abstracts of the respective papers in each panel) is available and searchable at:
www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/Program_Book/default.asp?ANum=&DayTime=&KeyWord=&Submit=View+Program+Book
Further information and registration:
www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Current_Meeting/default.asp
06 May 2009
CONF: Bund and Borders: German Jewish Thinking Between Faith and Power
Jewish Museum Berlin, Lindenstrasse 9-14, 10969 Berlin, Germany
17-19 May 2009
Conference: "Bund and Borders: German Jewish Thinking Between Faith and Power"
The conference describes the history of German Jewry in light of two principle ideas: the notion of a Bund between the Jewish people and God and the need to define this Bund (Hebrew: Brith) within geopolitical and social borders.
Traditionally, German Jews stood between two systems of ideas: the world of fundamental faith and religious commitment and the world of secular power in politics. Since the Haskala, the majority of German Jews was committed to the idea of a religious Bund that should be transformed into a strong notion of cultural identity between well-defined borders. They did so by integrating the tools of intellectual critique on the one hand, and of moderate politics, on the other. Many German Jews transferred the same intermediary forms they learned and practiced to the cultures they were emigrating to, most notably to the heart of the Jewish Yishuv and then the new Jewish state. Responsible for much of the activity among Israel’s cultural elite, German Jews reworked an intensive culture of mediation and moderation.
Ingrained in today’s tension between religious and secular segments in Israeli society is the notion that many of the early achievements were rescinded. As a result, a variety of voices have recently pleaded to return to a model of German-Jewish critique, one that dares to ask difficult questions but strives to find moderate solutions. At the heart of this rediscovery lies a concept that immigrated with German Jews to Palestine; the supposedly utopian alternative to the Zionist idea of a Jewish State, or as Martin Buber called it, the "theopolitical". In the background of this utopia lies a radical critique that was formulated by the late Prague circle in Jerusalem, in Jacob Taubes’s correspondence with Carl Schmitt, and in the current debate on the relation between religion and politics in Israel.
"Bund and Borders" relates to the ideas of key German Jewish scholars who formulated a language of dialogue and defined distinctions between state and religion, power and faith, operative language and its philosophy. With regard to these scholars the conference aims at defining a fruitful and promising relation between the notion of Bund, in its religious and political form, and borders, in its geo-political context, its social as well as methodological relevance.
The first afternoon session on 18 May, 2-4 pm, is particularly concerned with "A Jewish Political Theology?":
Jacob Taubes redefined Carl Schmitt’s concept of political theology in terms of Jewish religious traditions, posing a series of questions: What is the task of political theology in a world very different from the one Schmitt knew? How did it become such a hotly debated topic? How should it be contextualized? Presentations will be given by Vivian Liska (University of Antwerp), Menachem Lorberbaum (University of Tel Aviv), Nitzan Lebovic (University of Tel Aviv/University of Sussex).
The conference was initiated and shaped by Nitzan Lebovic and Mirjam Wenzel, two former Fellows of the Leo Baeck Fellowship Programme. It is organized by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Berlin and supported by the Stiftung "Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft". The programme can be found here:
www.sdvnet.de/leobaeck/Program.html
For further information and registration please contact Johannes Sabel (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes): sabel@studienstiftung.de
Deadline for registration is 10 May.
17-19 May 2009
Conference: "Bund and Borders: German Jewish Thinking Between Faith and Power"
The conference describes the history of German Jewry in light of two principle ideas: the notion of a Bund between the Jewish people and God and the need to define this Bund (Hebrew: Brith) within geopolitical and social borders.
Traditionally, German Jews stood between two systems of ideas: the world of fundamental faith and religious commitment and the world of secular power in politics. Since the Haskala, the majority of German Jews was committed to the idea of a religious Bund that should be transformed into a strong notion of cultural identity between well-defined borders. They did so by integrating the tools of intellectual critique on the one hand, and of moderate politics, on the other. Many German Jews transferred the same intermediary forms they learned and practiced to the cultures they were emigrating to, most notably to the heart of the Jewish Yishuv and then the new Jewish state. Responsible for much of the activity among Israel’s cultural elite, German Jews reworked an intensive culture of mediation and moderation.
Ingrained in today’s tension between religious and secular segments in Israeli society is the notion that many of the early achievements were rescinded. As a result, a variety of voices have recently pleaded to return to a model of German-Jewish critique, one that dares to ask difficult questions but strives to find moderate solutions. At the heart of this rediscovery lies a concept that immigrated with German Jews to Palestine; the supposedly utopian alternative to the Zionist idea of a Jewish State, or as Martin Buber called it, the "theopolitical". In the background of this utopia lies a radical critique that was formulated by the late Prague circle in Jerusalem, in Jacob Taubes’s correspondence with Carl Schmitt, and in the current debate on the relation between religion and politics in Israel.
"Bund and Borders" relates to the ideas of key German Jewish scholars who formulated a language of dialogue and defined distinctions between state and religion, power and faith, operative language and its philosophy. With regard to these scholars the conference aims at defining a fruitful and promising relation between the notion of Bund, in its religious and political form, and borders, in its geo-political context, its social as well as methodological relevance.
The first afternoon session on 18 May, 2-4 pm, is particularly concerned with "A Jewish Political Theology?":
Jacob Taubes redefined Carl Schmitt’s concept of political theology in terms of Jewish religious traditions, posing a series of questions: What is the task of political theology in a world very different from the one Schmitt knew? How did it become such a hotly debated topic? How should it be contextualized? Presentations will be given by Vivian Liska (University of Antwerp), Menachem Lorberbaum (University of Tel Aviv), Nitzan Lebovic (University of Tel Aviv/University of Sussex).
The conference was initiated and shaped by Nitzan Lebovic and Mirjam Wenzel, two former Fellows of the Leo Baeck Fellowship Programme. It is organized by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Berlin and supported by the Stiftung "Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft". The programme can be found here:
www.sdvnet.de/leobaeck/Program.html
For further information and registration please contact Johannes Sabel (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes): sabel@studienstiftung.de
Deadline for registration is 10 May.
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