Please circulate widely!
CALL FOR PAPERS
Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2011
Organized by: Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)
Location: Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the University of Geneva, Château de Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland
Date: 12-13 July 2011
The "Political Theology Agenda" (www.political-theology-agenda.blogspot.com) has been run by the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society since January 2009. The blog is the premier resource on the net for the comparative study of political theology and political theologies across the boundaries of various traditions and academic disciplines.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2011 will be the second event we organize in conjunction with the blog. It follows on from a highly successful first symposium held in Geneva in August 2010 and two equally well-received events on comparative political theology SCIS organized earlier, namely, in September 2007, a section and symposium at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research in Pisa, Italy, and, in July 2008, a stand-alone symposium at Sciences Po/the Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Paris, France. All three events drew participants from the world over.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2011 is set to be equally international and interdisciplinary in scope. We invite affiliated academics, independent scholars, and doctoral students and candidates from a wide range of disciplines, such as Theology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Political Theory, Political Science, International Relations, Law, Literature, History, Jewish Studies, Education, Cultural Studies, Geography, and so on. Papers may not only cover any and all aspects of political theology, but also related concepts, such as liberation theology, public theology, black theology, the Christian Right, Radical Orthodoxy, religious anarchism, Minjung theology, Dalit theology, radical Islam, religious Zionism, political religion, civil religion, etc. Have a look at the blog to see what might be of interest and falls within our remit. Papers may be theoretical and/or empirical in nature. Although not a condition, we particularly encourage a comparative perspective. Work in progress is welcome too.
We expect that 15-20 participants will be attending the workshop-style Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2011. Over the course of two full days, each presenter will have 45-60 minutes (depending on the number of participants) to present his or her paper and discuss it with all others. The symposium starts early on Tuesday and ends Wednesday late in the afternoon. Due to the small size of the symposium, all participants are expected to attend both days.
As with all SCIS events, no fees will be charged from participants, and no funding is available to cover participants' travel and accommodation expenses. We will be glad to issue letters of acceptance on request to assist participants in securing funding from their usual sources. The 18th-century Château de Bossey, set in an outstanding natural environment overlooking Lake Geneva and the French Alps, offers comfortable accommodation at reasonable prices. Further information will be provided to confirmed participants.
Please send your proposal to: e.kofmel@sussexcentre.org
Deadline: 31 January 2011
Later submissions may still be accepted, but early submission is strongly advised and proposals may be accepted as they come in.
Cordially,
Erich Kofmel
Managing Director / Research Professor of Political Theory
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)
www.sussexcentre.org
E-mail: e.kofmel@sussexcentre.org
Postal address:
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society
1200 Geneva
Switzerland
SCIS is an international association under Swiss law.
Founded 2006 at the University of Sussex.
Showing posts with label comparative political theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comparative political theology. Show all posts
13 September 2010
20 August 2010
Report on the Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010: Political theology goes East and South
The first event held by the Geneva-based Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) in conjunction with its "Political Theology Agenda" blog, the Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010, was a full success.
It took place on 18 and 19 August 2010 at the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Château de Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland. Bossey doubles as an institute of the University of Geneva since all degrees awarded there (Masters and PhD degrees in Ecumenical Studies) are granted by the University of Geneva.
Keynote speakers were Professor Aliakbar Alikhani, Head of the Institute for Social and Cultural Studies at the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Tehran, Iran, and Professor Galip Veliu from the Department of Philosophy at the State University of Tetovo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010 attracted seventeen papers submitted by participants from institutions such as University College London, the University of Birmingham (both UK), the University of Helsinki (Finland), the University of Quebec at Montreal (Canada), the University of Tehran (Iran), the University of the Punjab (Pakistan), the University of South Africa, the University of Zimbabwe, the National University of Malaysia, Universitas Nasional at Jakarta (Indonesia), and San Beda College in Manila (the Philippines). Other countries represented include Macedonia, Romania, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Nigeria.
Speakers – from doctoral candidates to full professors – came from the disciplines of Political Science, Philosophy, Political Theory, Theology, Church History, and Islamic Studies, giving theoretical as well as empirical presentations on subjects including secularization and religious pluralism, political theology, black theology, liberation theology, and radical Islam.
After Pisa, Italy, in 2007 and Paris, France, in 2008, this was the third symposium on political theology organized by the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society and, once more, it opened up new frontiers for political theology. It was by far the most international event we ever organized (and quite possibly the most international event on political theology to take place anywhere as yet) with five participants from Iran alone and scores of submissions (not all accepted) from the Middle East and East Asia as well as Africa. Taken together with a high number of submissions from (South-)Eastern Europe, there is a significant trend to be observed: after gaining momentum in the Anglophone countries over the past few years, the study of political theology now goes East and South, spreading to Asia and Africa.
The Political Theology Agenda blog and the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society will continue to be at the forefront of these developments.
(On the downside, all prospective American and Israeli participants withdrew, one by one, from the symposium once they knew that there would be Iranians present. Way to encourage dialogue.)
It took place on 18 and 19 August 2010 at the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Château de Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland. Bossey doubles as an institute of the University of Geneva since all degrees awarded there (Masters and PhD degrees in Ecumenical Studies) are granted by the University of Geneva.
Keynote speakers were Professor Aliakbar Alikhani, Head of the Institute for Social and Cultural Studies at the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Tehran, Iran, and Professor Galip Veliu from the Department of Philosophy at the State University of Tetovo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010 attracted seventeen papers submitted by participants from institutions such as University College London, the University of Birmingham (both UK), the University of Helsinki (Finland), the University of Quebec at Montreal (Canada), the University of Tehran (Iran), the University of the Punjab (Pakistan), the University of South Africa, the University of Zimbabwe, the National University of Malaysia, Universitas Nasional at Jakarta (Indonesia), and San Beda College in Manila (the Philippines). Other countries represented include Macedonia, Romania, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Nigeria.
Speakers – from doctoral candidates to full professors – came from the disciplines of Political Science, Philosophy, Political Theory, Theology, Church History, and Islamic Studies, giving theoretical as well as empirical presentations on subjects including secularization and religious pluralism, political theology, black theology, liberation theology, and radical Islam.
After Pisa, Italy, in 2007 and Paris, France, in 2008, this was the third symposium on political theology organized by the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society and, once more, it opened up new frontiers for political theology. It was by far the most international event we ever organized (and quite possibly the most international event on political theology to take place anywhere as yet) with five participants from Iran alone and scores of submissions (not all accepted) from the Middle East and East Asia as well as Africa. Taken together with a high number of submissions from (South-)Eastern Europe, there is a significant trend to be observed: after gaining momentum in the Anglophone countries over the past few years, the study of political theology now goes East and South, spreading to Asia and Africa.
The Political Theology Agenda blog and the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society will continue to be at the forefront of these developments.
(On the downside, all prospective American and Israeli participants withdrew, one by one, from the symposium once they knew that there would be Iranians present. Way to encourage dialogue.)
27 May 2010
Book: Political Theology: Schmitt – Derrida – Metz (in German)
Michaela Rissing and Thilo Rissing are the authors of the monograph "Politische Theologie: Schmitt – Derrida – Metz: Eine Einführung"
(Political Theology: Schmitt – Derrida – Metz: An Introduction; my translation), published by the German Wilhelm Fink Verlag in August 2009:
www.fink.de/katalog/titel/978-3-7705-4871-2.html
From the publisher's description: "'Political theology' – a term as suggestive as controversial. Depending on whether one views it from a political, philosophical or theological perspective, it reveals different guiding principles that traverse its conceptual field in diverging directions, cross each other or even converge. Starting from the political theology of Carl Schmitt, [...] the authors continue with an exposition of the thinking of Jacques Derrida [... and] the model of the new political theology of Johann Baptist Metz. The question is asked as to whether theology is political and, conversely, politics remains bound to theological figures of thought even under secular conditions." (my rough translation)
I can find no reliable biographical information about the authors who have, between them, published a number of books before this.
(Political Theology: Schmitt – Derrida – Metz: An Introduction; my translation), published by the German Wilhelm Fink Verlag in August 2009:
www.fink.de/katalog/titel/978-3-7705-4871-2.html
From the publisher's description: "'Political theology' – a term as suggestive as controversial. Depending on whether one views it from a political, philosophical or theological perspective, it reveals different guiding principles that traverse its conceptual field in diverging directions, cross each other or even converge. Starting from the political theology of Carl Schmitt, [...] the authors continue with an exposition of the thinking of Jacques Derrida [... and] the model of the new political theology of Johann Baptist Metz. The question is asked as to whether theology is political and, conversely, politics remains bound to theological figures of thought even under secular conditions." (my rough translation)
I can find no reliable biographical information about the authors who have, between them, published a number of books before this.
04 May 2010
CFP: Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010
Please circulate widely!
CALL FOR PAPERS
Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010
Organized by: Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)
Location: Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the University of Geneva, Château de Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland
Date: 18-19 August 2010
The "Political Theology Agenda" (www.political-theology-agenda.blogspot.com) has been run by the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society since January 2009. The blog is the premier resource on the net for the comparative study of political theology and political theologies across the boundaries of various traditions and academic disciplines.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010 will be the first event we organize in conjunction with the blog. It will build up though on two highly successful events on comparative political theology SCIS organized earlier. Namely, in September 2007, a section and symposium at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research in Pisa, Italy, and, in July 2008, a stand-alone symposium at Sciences Po/the Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Paris, France. Both events drew participants from the world over.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010 is set to be equally international and interdisciplinary in scope. We invite affiliated academics, independent scholars, and doctoral students and candidates from a wide range of disciplines, such as Theology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Political Theory, Political Science, International Relations, Law, Literature, History, Jewish Studies, Education, Cultural Studies, Geography, and so on. Papers may not only cover any and all aspects of political theology, but also related concepts, such as liberation theology, public theology, black theology, the Christian Right, radical Orthodoxy, religious anarchism, minjung theology, Dalit theology, radical Islam, religious Zionism, political religion, civil religion, etc. Have a look at the blog to see what might be of interest and falls within our remit. Papers may be theoretical and/or empirical in nature. Although not a condition, we particularly encourage a comparative perspective. Work in progress is welcome too.
We expect that 15-20 participants will be attending the workshop-style Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010. Over the course of two full days, each presenter will have 45-60 minutes (depending on the number of participants) to present his or her paper and discuss it with all others.
As with all SCIS events, no fees will be charged from participants, and no funding is available to cover participants' travel and accommodation expenses. We will be glad to issue letters of invitation on request to assist participants in securing funding from their usual sources. The 18th-century Château de Bossey, set in an outstanding natural environment overlooking Lake Geneva and the French Alps, offers comfortable accommodation at reasonable prices. Alternatively, participants may decide to stay in Geneva and commute to the symposium. Further information will be provided to confirmed participants. The symposium starts early on Wednesday and ends Thursday late in the afternoon.
Please send your proposal to: e.kofmel@sussexcentre.org
Extended deadline: 15 July 2010
Later submissions may still be accepted, but early submission is strongly advised and proposals may be accepted as they come in.
Cordially,
Erich Kofmel
Managing Director / Research Professor of Political Theory
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)
www.sussexcentre.org
E-mail: e.kofmel@sussexcentre.org
Postal address:
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society
1200 Geneva
Switzerland
SCIS is an international association under Swiss law.
Founded 2006 at the University of Sussex.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010
Organized by: Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)
Location: Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the University of Geneva, Château de Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland
Date: 18-19 August 2010
The "Political Theology Agenda" (www.political-theology-agenda.blogspot.com) has been run by the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society since January 2009. The blog is the premier resource on the net for the comparative study of political theology and political theologies across the boundaries of various traditions and academic disciplines.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010 will be the first event we organize in conjunction with the blog. It will build up though on two highly successful events on comparative political theology SCIS organized earlier. Namely, in September 2007, a section and symposium at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research in Pisa, Italy, and, in July 2008, a stand-alone symposium at Sciences Po/the Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Paris, France. Both events drew participants from the world over.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010 is set to be equally international and interdisciplinary in scope. We invite affiliated academics, independent scholars, and doctoral students and candidates from a wide range of disciplines, such as Theology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Political Theory, Political Science, International Relations, Law, Literature, History, Jewish Studies, Education, Cultural Studies, Geography, and so on. Papers may not only cover any and all aspects of political theology, but also related concepts, such as liberation theology, public theology, black theology, the Christian Right, radical Orthodoxy, religious anarchism, minjung theology, Dalit theology, radical Islam, religious Zionism, political religion, civil religion, etc. Have a look at the blog to see what might be of interest and falls within our remit. Papers may be theoretical and/or empirical in nature. Although not a condition, we particularly encourage a comparative perspective. Work in progress is welcome too.
We expect that 15-20 participants will be attending the workshop-style Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010. Over the course of two full days, each presenter will have 45-60 minutes (depending on the number of participants) to present his or her paper and discuss it with all others.
As with all SCIS events, no fees will be charged from participants, and no funding is available to cover participants' travel and accommodation expenses. We will be glad to issue letters of invitation on request to assist participants in securing funding from their usual sources. The 18th-century Château de Bossey, set in an outstanding natural environment overlooking Lake Geneva and the French Alps, offers comfortable accommodation at reasonable prices. Alternatively, participants may decide to stay in Geneva and commute to the symposium. Further information will be provided to confirmed participants. The symposium starts early on Wednesday and ends Thursday late in the afternoon.
Please send your proposal to: e.kofmel@sussexcentre.org
Extended deadline: 15 July 2010
Later submissions may still be accepted, but early submission is strongly advised and proposals may be accepted as they come in.
Cordially,
Erich Kofmel
Managing Director / Research Professor of Political Theory
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)
www.sussexcentre.org
E-mail: e.kofmel@sussexcentre.org
Postal address:
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society
1200 Geneva
Switzerland
SCIS is an international association under Swiss law.
Founded 2006 at the University of Sussex.
25 March 2010
Book: Toward a Planetary Theology: Along the Many Paths of God
"Toward a Planetary Theology: Along the Many Paths of God", edited by José María Vigil, is a contributed volume just published by a Montreal-based small independent operation called Dunamis Publishers (March 2010).
The full text of the book can be read free of charge here:
http://tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths/EATWOT-TowardAPlanetaryTheology.pdf
This is the fifth volume in a series initiated by the Latin American Theological Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT). The earlier volumes seem to have been published in English elsewhere.
According to the publisher's blog, "[t]his is a book that [...] contains reflections by theologians from at least five major world religions on five continents. They all responded to questions about the possibility and urgency of a planetary theology with which every religion would be able to identify – like an ecumenical theology but much, much broader. The results are interesting and open a debate. Never before has there been an effort to bring together the threads of inter-religious theology and liberation theology."
José María Vigil, from Panama, is a theologian and psychologist. He is Coordinator of the International Theological Commission of EATWOT and Editor-in-Chief of the annual "World Latin American Agenda".
The full text of the book can be read free of charge here:
http://tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths/EATWOT-TowardAPlanetaryTheology.pdf
This is the fifth volume in a series initiated by the Latin American Theological Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT). The earlier volumes seem to have been published in English elsewhere.
According to the publisher's blog, "[t]his is a book that [...] contains reflections by theologians from at least five major world religions on five continents. They all responded to questions about the possibility and urgency of a planetary theology with which every religion would be able to identify – like an ecumenical theology but much, much broader. The results are interesting and open a debate. Never before has there been an effort to bring together the threads of inter-religious theology and liberation theology."
José María Vigil, from Panama, is a theologian and psychologist. He is Coordinator of the International Theological Commission of EATWOT and Editor-in-Chief of the annual "World Latin American Agenda".
24 March 2010
Book: Post-Christian Protestant Political Theology in John Howard Yoder and Oliver O'Donovan
Paul G. Doerksen, "Beyond Suspicion: Post-Christian Protestant Political Theology in John Howard Yoder and Oliver O'Donovan" (Wipf and Stock, January 2010), with a foreword by P. Travis Kroeker (McMaster University):
http://wipfandstock.com/store/Beyond_Suspicion_PostChristian_Protestant_Political_Theology_in_John_Howard_Yoder_and_Oliver_ODonovan
Publisher's description: "The modern era includes a two-fold tradition of radical suspicion – the suspicion that politicians corrupt morality, and that politics is corrupted by theology. However, such a view has been challenged in recent theological thought which seeks to move beyond such suspicion to recover a constructive role for political theology. By pursuing a critical comparison of the political theologies of John Howard Yoder and Oliver O'Donovan, the present work shows how post-Christendom Protestant political theology has attempted to move beyond suspicion without putting forward some hidden attempt to reassert a contemporary version of Christendom. O'Donovan's political theology, written from within the British Anglican tradition, is a bold project in which he attempts to push back the horizons of commonplace secularist politics and open it up theologically, a move that he believes will offer crucial resources for thinking about justice and the common good.
"A related response is presented by Yoder, who, as an American Mennonite, represents Anabaptism. From this more marginal ecclesial location, Yoder's thought stands both as a challenge to regnant liberal notions of the relation of church and state, and as an important interlocutor for O'Donovan's political theology. Yoder argues that political theology entails a particular kind of focus on the church, where the very shape of the church in the world is a public witness for the world, and not first of all a withdrawal from the world. The critical comparison brings to view areas of significant convergence and divergence in understandings of the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the New Testament. O'Donovan and Yoder's respective interpretations of Christendom are also fundamentally divergent, as are their views on the legitimacy of the use of force by government, clearly seen in O'Donovan's support of Just War Tradition and Yoder's promotion of Messianic Pacifism."
Endorsements: "I often observe if there is any alternative to Yoder it is Oliver O'Donovan. So we are in Doerksen's debt for putting Yoder and O'Donovan in conversation. His careful exposition of these thinkers helps us better see the challenges before the church in the world in which we find ourselves." (Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University)
"This study of O'Donovan and Yoder demonstrates more common ground between them than one might have suspected. Doerksen provides a fair and balanced treatment of the Reformed and Anabaptist theo-political traditions in the two persons of two of those traditions' strongest proponents. It deserves careful reading by anyone interested in social ethics done from outside the dominant traditions of political theology." (Craig A. Carter, Tyndale University College)
"In this fine, critical analysis of two very different theological ethicists [...,] Paul Doerksen rescues 'political theology' from its ideological distortion on the right (fascism), on the left (socialism), and in the centre (liberalism), grounding theo-political ethics squarely in scripture and the church as alternative political community. This is an important contribution to the growing literature in politics and theology, one in which political thought and action are grounded in sound biblical theology." (A. James Reimer, University of Waterloo/Conrad Grebel University College)
Paul G. Doerksen is Department Head-Biblical Studies at the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, Winnipeg. This book is based on his doctoral dissertation at McMaster University.
The book was apparently published previously by Paternoster Press in 2009.
http://wipfandstock.com/store/Beyond_Suspicion_PostChristian_Protestant_Political_Theology_in_John_Howard_Yoder_and_Oliver_ODonovan
Publisher's description: "The modern era includes a two-fold tradition of radical suspicion – the suspicion that politicians corrupt morality, and that politics is corrupted by theology. However, such a view has been challenged in recent theological thought which seeks to move beyond such suspicion to recover a constructive role for political theology. By pursuing a critical comparison of the political theologies of John Howard Yoder and Oliver O'Donovan, the present work shows how post-Christendom Protestant political theology has attempted to move beyond suspicion without putting forward some hidden attempt to reassert a contemporary version of Christendom. O'Donovan's political theology, written from within the British Anglican tradition, is a bold project in which he attempts to push back the horizons of commonplace secularist politics and open it up theologically, a move that he believes will offer crucial resources for thinking about justice and the common good.
"A related response is presented by Yoder, who, as an American Mennonite, represents Anabaptism. From this more marginal ecclesial location, Yoder's thought stands both as a challenge to regnant liberal notions of the relation of church and state, and as an important interlocutor for O'Donovan's political theology. Yoder argues that political theology entails a particular kind of focus on the church, where the very shape of the church in the world is a public witness for the world, and not first of all a withdrawal from the world. The critical comparison brings to view areas of significant convergence and divergence in understandings of the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the New Testament. O'Donovan and Yoder's respective interpretations of Christendom are also fundamentally divergent, as are their views on the legitimacy of the use of force by government, clearly seen in O'Donovan's support of Just War Tradition and Yoder's promotion of Messianic Pacifism."
Endorsements: "I often observe if there is any alternative to Yoder it is Oliver O'Donovan. So we are in Doerksen's debt for putting Yoder and O'Donovan in conversation. His careful exposition of these thinkers helps us better see the challenges before the church in the world in which we find ourselves." (Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University)
"This study of O'Donovan and Yoder demonstrates more common ground between them than one might have suspected. Doerksen provides a fair and balanced treatment of the Reformed and Anabaptist theo-political traditions in the two persons of two of those traditions' strongest proponents. It deserves careful reading by anyone interested in social ethics done from outside the dominant traditions of political theology." (Craig A. Carter, Tyndale University College)
"In this fine, critical analysis of two very different theological ethicists [...,] Paul Doerksen rescues 'political theology' from its ideological distortion on the right (fascism), on the left (socialism), and in the centre (liberalism), grounding theo-political ethics squarely in scripture and the church as alternative political community. This is an important contribution to the growing literature in politics and theology, one in which political thought and action are grounded in sound biblical theology." (A. James Reimer, University of Waterloo/Conrad Grebel University College)
Paul G. Doerksen is Department Head-Biblical Studies at the Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, Winnipeg. This book is based on his doctoral dissertation at McMaster University.
The book was apparently published previously by Paternoster Press in 2009.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
18 December 2009
CFP: Sainthood in Fragile States
A seminar of the Danish Research School of Regional Studies and the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies of the University of Copenhagen, taking place at the Danish Institute in Damascus, Syria,
12-15 April 2010
http://regionalestudier.hum.ku.dk/konferencer/sainthood/
Call for papers: "Sainthood in Fragile States"
This seminar discusses the creation, adaptation, or denunciations of claims to sainthood in local, regional, and national discourses in the Middle East, including political theologies.
Within recent decades the question of sainthood, in various meanings of the term, has emerged as a powerful theme in negotiating identities. The legitimacy of sainthood is increasingly contested, yet often nation states make use of claims to holiness as consolidating figures, while simultaneously maintaining an ambivalent position toward the legitimacy of individual claims to sainthood. From Christians performing miracles, to Islamic denunciation of saint pilgrimages, to insistence on venerating local saints, to national discourse rooted in venerated figures, sainthood "matters" in that it is not clearly discernable to all parties what makes the specific saint exceptional or to what degree sainthood is embodied.
Recognition of sainthood relies on a complex negotiation of the relationship between the visible, the forces of the unseen, authority, and creation of alternative realities. The qualities of sainthood can thus best be conceptualized as both pertaining to existential and structural dimensions, as fragile states, where mixed motivations emphasize the possibilities and dangers in the life of the individual as well as the nation.
This seminar aims at discussing how such relationships and claims are accepted, contested, or existing in parallel, and thereby has a bearing on social and political life in the Middle East.
The organizers hereby aim to challenge the way both politics and theologies are being conceptualized for contemporary Middle East, in that modernity and religious awakening both make way for disenchantment and re-enchantment. These can be seen as coterminous or opening zones of indeterminacy in which many aspects take place at the same time, with varying social outcome.
Questions that could be addressed: What makes a saint, or what qualities of sainthood apply across social, political, and religious contexts? How is "sainthood" used in negotiating identities at various levels of society? How is evidence of efficacy negotiated? What evidence is applied to substantiate relationships between the seen and the unseen, or revelation and concealment? How is the relationship between politics and theology, the "political theologies", negotiated around figures of sainthood or sanctity?
Abstracts (approx. 300 words) are to be submitted to Andreas Bandak (University of Copenhagen): bandak@hum.ku.dk
Deadline: 12 January 2010
Participants will arrange for their own transportation. The seminar will pay for visa, accommodation, and food, from the evening of the 12th to the evening of the 15th.
Form: The seminar will bring together senior and upcoming Danish and international scholars for a joint investigation of issues of sainthood in contemporary Middle East. Perspectives from all disciplines are encouraged. Keynote speakers will give 45-minute presentations, and PhD students are invited to give 30-minute presentations. All papers are followed by joint discussion. The organizers' aim is to publish the proceedings from the seminar.
Keynotes: Lisa Wedeen (Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Chicago) and Glenn Bowman (Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, University of Kent)
Organizers: Andreas Bandak (PhD Fellow, Centre for Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen) and Mikkel Bille (Assistant Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen)
See also suggested readings at the above web link.
12-15 April 2010
http://regionalestudier.hum.ku.dk/konferencer/sainthood/
Call for papers: "Sainthood in Fragile States"
This seminar discusses the creation, adaptation, or denunciations of claims to sainthood in local, regional, and national discourses in the Middle East, including political theologies.
Within recent decades the question of sainthood, in various meanings of the term, has emerged as a powerful theme in negotiating identities. The legitimacy of sainthood is increasingly contested, yet often nation states make use of claims to holiness as consolidating figures, while simultaneously maintaining an ambivalent position toward the legitimacy of individual claims to sainthood. From Christians performing miracles, to Islamic denunciation of saint pilgrimages, to insistence on venerating local saints, to national discourse rooted in venerated figures, sainthood "matters" in that it is not clearly discernable to all parties what makes the specific saint exceptional or to what degree sainthood is embodied.
Recognition of sainthood relies on a complex negotiation of the relationship between the visible, the forces of the unseen, authority, and creation of alternative realities. The qualities of sainthood can thus best be conceptualized as both pertaining to existential and structural dimensions, as fragile states, where mixed motivations emphasize the possibilities and dangers in the life of the individual as well as the nation.
This seminar aims at discussing how such relationships and claims are accepted, contested, or existing in parallel, and thereby has a bearing on social and political life in the Middle East.
The organizers hereby aim to challenge the way both politics and theologies are being conceptualized for contemporary Middle East, in that modernity and religious awakening both make way for disenchantment and re-enchantment. These can be seen as coterminous or opening zones of indeterminacy in which many aspects take place at the same time, with varying social outcome.
Questions that could be addressed: What makes a saint, or what qualities of sainthood apply across social, political, and religious contexts? How is "sainthood" used in negotiating identities at various levels of society? How is evidence of efficacy negotiated? What evidence is applied to substantiate relationships between the seen and the unseen, or revelation and concealment? How is the relationship between politics and theology, the "political theologies", negotiated around figures of sainthood or sanctity?
Abstracts (approx. 300 words) are to be submitted to Andreas Bandak (University of Copenhagen): bandak@hum.ku.dk
Deadline: 12 January 2010
Participants will arrange for their own transportation. The seminar will pay for visa, accommodation, and food, from the evening of the 12th to the evening of the 15th.
Form: The seminar will bring together senior and upcoming Danish and international scholars for a joint investigation of issues of sainthood in contemporary Middle East. Perspectives from all disciplines are encouraged. Keynote speakers will give 45-minute presentations, and PhD students are invited to give 30-minute presentations. All papers are followed by joint discussion. The organizers' aim is to publish the proceedings from the seminar.
Keynotes: Lisa Wedeen (Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Chicago) and Glenn Bowman (Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, University of Kent)
Organizers: Andreas Bandak (PhD Fellow, Centre for Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen) and Mikkel Bille (Assistant Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen)
See also suggested readings at the above web link.
04 December 2009
CONF: Renaissance Society of America annual meeting
56th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America (RSA), in Venice, Italy, 8-10 April 2010
www.rsa.org/meetings/annualmeeting.php
A number of papers on political theology will be given at this conference.
Foremost, a panel on "Early Modern and Contemporary Political Theologies", organized by Travis R. DeCook (Carleton University) and chaired by Paul Anthony Stevens (University of Toronto), will take place on 8 April, 9.00-10.30 am (Università Ca Foscari – San Basilio – Aula 0E).
Abstracts of two papers in this panel: Travis R. DeCook, "Milton and the Post-Postmodern Turn to St. Paul": "Recently, the philosophers Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou have emphasized the significance of St. Paul's formulation of universalism for our purportedly 'post-political' era. This paper considers the problematic status of Judaism and Jewish identity within this scheme by taking up the function of the Pauline spirit/letter distinction in the writings of John Milton. Specifically, it considers the role played by the notion of Christianity's supersession of the Jewish past in Milton's political writings and the poems Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. These late poems offer a suggestive analogy with Badiou and Zizek, since they reflect on the defeat of Milton's revolutionary hopes. The function of Jewish identity in these texts complicates prevailing understandings of Christian supersession; this paper uncovers how such complications play an important role in Milton's post-Restoration politics, and moreover illuminate and challenge how Pauline universalism gets appropriated in today's political thought."
Jennifer Rebecca Rust (Saint Louis University), "Political Theologies of the Corpus Mysticum: Schmitt, Kantorowicz and de Lubac": "The fate of the corpus mysticum in the work of Carl Schmitt and Ernst Kantorowicz measures the distance between these two theorists' 'political theologies.' Schmitt marginalizes the traditional notion of the collective 'mystical body' of the Church in order to foreground the 'concrete' person of the decisive sovereign, while Kantorowicz implicitly corrects Schmitt by emphasizing the transference of the corpus mysticum from an ecclesiastical to a political context in the premodern period. I identify a third way between these two alternatives in a major source for Kantorowicz's analysis of the corpus mysticum, the twentieth-century Catholic theologian Henri de Lubac. Kantorowicz faithfully reproduces much of de Lubac's argument, but he also subtly misreads de Lubac's claims about the dynamic relationship between Eucharistic and ecclesiastical bodies in the early Church. I consider how the corpus mysticum opens a space for dialogue between contemporary theories of political theology and twentieth-century Catholic resourcement theology."
In the panel "Sessions in Honor of Colin Eisler II: Trecento and Quattrocento Devotional Images" (8 April, 11.00 am-12.30 pm, Fondazione Cini – Sala del Piccolo Teatro), Suzanna B. Simor (City University of New York, Queen's College) will be presenting a paper on "The Credo in Siena: Art, Civic Religion and Politics in Sienese Images of the Christian Creeds".
Abstract: "In the span of a mere four decades in the first half of the fifteenth century, Siena produced an unparalleled concentration of ambitious visualizations of the texts of the Christian creeds, realized in commissions for the most powerful patrons of the city-state. The leading communal and ecclesiastical institutions all featured Creed cycles in prominent locations, embedded in coherent and richly symbolic programs. This essay will explore the imagery of these Sienese Creed cycles within their shared tradition and with attention to factors that likely contributed to their individual interpretations. It will demonstrate that within the prescriptive confines of its Creed's content, each of the Sienese renditions was addressed directly to its audience, conceived and employed for specific purposes, and deployed iconography that supported each patron's particular agenda. Reflecting Siena's characteristic blending of religion and politics, the diverse Sienese Credos partake of the political theology of the commune."
In the panel "Politics and Religion: Jesuit and Princely Cooperation in Counter-Reformation Strategies", sponsored by the Society for Early Modern Catholic Studies (9 April, 4.00-5.30 pm, Università Ca Foscari – San Basilio – Aula 2B), Raffaella Santi (Università degli Studi di Urbino) will be presenting a paper on "The Function of Political Theology in Hobbes's Leviathan".
Abstract: "The English version of Leviathan, written by Thomas Hobbes in Paris during the English Civil War, appeared in London in 1651; while the somewhat revised Latin version was published in Amsterdam in 1668, as the third and final part of the collection of Hobbes's Opera philosophica, Quae latine scripsit, Omnia…(in 2 vols). The main change in both versions of Leviathan, with respect to his previous works on political philosophy – namely The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic and De cive – is the great importance attributed to religious and theological matters, and to political theology. For instance, Hobbes discusses the famous De summo pontifice by Cardinal Bellarmino, re-interpreting many biblical passages through his materialistic theology. Emphasizing the 'chiasmus' rhetorical structure of the four parts of Leviathan, I will argue that the Hobbesian analysis of the holy Scriptures is made in order to ensure a theoretical 'theological' foundation for sovereign power, that reinforces the 'scientific' foundation, based on human nature, carried out in the first two parts of Leviathan."
In the same panel, John H. Smith (University of California, Irvine) will be presenting a paper, "Bellarmine, Kings, and The Church": "As the chief apologist and theologian of the post-Trentine Counter-[R]eformation, the Jesuit cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) systematized the arguments against Protestantism in his monumental Disputations on Controversies of the Christian Faith against the Heretics (1586-89, 1596, 1608). Central to his discussion are the debates over the extent of the church's political power as well as over the religious authority of temporal leaders. Bellarmine strove to find a middle ground, what Hughes Oliphant Old calls a 'baroque synthesis' between Aquinas and Machiavelli, between the ambitions of the popes and the claims of kings and princes across Europe. On the one hand, his writings were at one point placed on the papal index (by Sixtus V) and, on the other, he delivered a powerful response to James I of England against the oath of allegiance. This paper explores Bellarmine's politico-theological arguments, comparing them to the Protestant thinkers he took so seriously. They have continued relevance today for disputations concerning religious vs. secular political authority."
In the panel "Weimar, Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Erich Auerbach and the Quest for European Internationalism", sponsored by the Renaissance Studies Certificate Program at CUNY's Graduate Center (10 April, 2.00-3.30 pm, Biblioteca Marciana), Jane O. Newman (University of California, Irvine) will be presenting a paper on "Modernity, Habitus, Ethics: Worldliness in Auerbach's Dante and Boccaccio".
Abstract: "In his 1921 dissertation on the Renaissance novella, Auerbach maintains that 'this-worldliness' is the essence of the Romance tradition. While the exemplum and fabliau appear to offer anterior models, he claims that it was Dante and his focus in the Commedia on 'secular life' that were the origins of this most 'modern' of genres. My paper investigates the evolution of Auerbach's argument about the relation between Dante and Boccaccio between 1921 and 1946 in the context of the political-theological controversies in Germany during the early twentieth century. In the poetry of Auerbach's exceedingly Thomist Dante, the 'image of man' counterintuitively 'eclipses the image of God' and thus counters the 'spiritualizing' 'figural-Christian' logic associated with Protestant dialectical theology. And yet, it is not clear that the ensuing modern world of Boccaccio's Decameron is much better, ensnared as it is in a habitus of worldly desire with no 'constructive ethical force.'"
You can find further information on the conference, including registration, on the RSA's website.
www.rsa.org/meetings/annualmeeting.php
A number of papers on political theology will be given at this conference.
Foremost, a panel on "Early Modern and Contemporary Political Theologies", organized by Travis R. DeCook (Carleton University) and chaired by Paul Anthony Stevens (University of Toronto), will take place on 8 April, 9.00-10.30 am (Università Ca Foscari – San Basilio – Aula 0E).
Abstracts of two papers in this panel: Travis R. DeCook, "Milton and the Post-Postmodern Turn to St. Paul": "Recently, the philosophers Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou have emphasized the significance of St. Paul's formulation of universalism for our purportedly 'post-political' era. This paper considers the problematic status of Judaism and Jewish identity within this scheme by taking up the function of the Pauline spirit/letter distinction in the writings of John Milton. Specifically, it considers the role played by the notion of Christianity's supersession of the Jewish past in Milton's political writings and the poems Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. These late poems offer a suggestive analogy with Badiou and Zizek, since they reflect on the defeat of Milton's revolutionary hopes. The function of Jewish identity in these texts complicates prevailing understandings of Christian supersession; this paper uncovers how such complications play an important role in Milton's post-Restoration politics, and moreover illuminate and challenge how Pauline universalism gets appropriated in today's political thought."
Jennifer Rebecca Rust (Saint Louis University), "Political Theologies of the Corpus Mysticum: Schmitt, Kantorowicz and de Lubac": "The fate of the corpus mysticum in the work of Carl Schmitt and Ernst Kantorowicz measures the distance between these two theorists' 'political theologies.' Schmitt marginalizes the traditional notion of the collective 'mystical body' of the Church in order to foreground the 'concrete' person of the decisive sovereign, while Kantorowicz implicitly corrects Schmitt by emphasizing the transference of the corpus mysticum from an ecclesiastical to a political context in the premodern period. I identify a third way between these two alternatives in a major source for Kantorowicz's analysis of the corpus mysticum, the twentieth-century Catholic theologian Henri de Lubac. Kantorowicz faithfully reproduces much of de Lubac's argument, but he also subtly misreads de Lubac's claims about the dynamic relationship between Eucharistic and ecclesiastical bodies in the early Church. I consider how the corpus mysticum opens a space for dialogue between contemporary theories of political theology and twentieth-century Catholic resourcement theology."
In the panel "Sessions in Honor of Colin Eisler II: Trecento and Quattrocento Devotional Images" (8 April, 11.00 am-12.30 pm, Fondazione Cini – Sala del Piccolo Teatro), Suzanna B. Simor (City University of New York, Queen's College) will be presenting a paper on "The Credo in Siena: Art, Civic Religion and Politics in Sienese Images of the Christian Creeds".
Abstract: "In the span of a mere four decades in the first half of the fifteenth century, Siena produced an unparalleled concentration of ambitious visualizations of the texts of the Christian creeds, realized in commissions for the most powerful patrons of the city-state. The leading communal and ecclesiastical institutions all featured Creed cycles in prominent locations, embedded in coherent and richly symbolic programs. This essay will explore the imagery of these Sienese Creed cycles within their shared tradition and with attention to factors that likely contributed to their individual interpretations. It will demonstrate that within the prescriptive confines of its Creed's content, each of the Sienese renditions was addressed directly to its audience, conceived and employed for specific purposes, and deployed iconography that supported each patron's particular agenda. Reflecting Siena's characteristic blending of religion and politics, the diverse Sienese Credos partake of the political theology of the commune."
In the panel "Politics and Religion: Jesuit and Princely Cooperation in Counter-Reformation Strategies", sponsored by the Society for Early Modern Catholic Studies (9 April, 4.00-5.30 pm, Università Ca Foscari – San Basilio – Aula 2B), Raffaella Santi (Università degli Studi di Urbino) will be presenting a paper on "The Function of Political Theology in Hobbes's Leviathan".
Abstract: "The English version of Leviathan, written by Thomas Hobbes in Paris during the English Civil War, appeared in London in 1651; while the somewhat revised Latin version was published in Amsterdam in 1668, as the third and final part of the collection of Hobbes's Opera philosophica, Quae latine scripsit, Omnia…(in 2 vols). The main change in both versions of Leviathan, with respect to his previous works on political philosophy – namely The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic and De cive – is the great importance attributed to religious and theological matters, and to political theology. For instance, Hobbes discusses the famous De summo pontifice by Cardinal Bellarmino, re-interpreting many biblical passages through his materialistic theology. Emphasizing the 'chiasmus' rhetorical structure of the four parts of Leviathan, I will argue that the Hobbesian analysis of the holy Scriptures is made in order to ensure a theoretical 'theological' foundation for sovereign power, that reinforces the 'scientific' foundation, based on human nature, carried out in the first two parts of Leviathan."
In the same panel, John H. Smith (University of California, Irvine) will be presenting a paper, "Bellarmine, Kings, and The Church": "As the chief apologist and theologian of the post-Trentine Counter-[R]eformation, the Jesuit cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) systematized the arguments against Protestantism in his monumental Disputations on Controversies of the Christian Faith against the Heretics (1586-89, 1596, 1608). Central to his discussion are the debates over the extent of the church's political power as well as over the religious authority of temporal leaders. Bellarmine strove to find a middle ground, what Hughes Oliphant Old calls a 'baroque synthesis' between Aquinas and Machiavelli, between the ambitions of the popes and the claims of kings and princes across Europe. On the one hand, his writings were at one point placed on the papal index (by Sixtus V) and, on the other, he delivered a powerful response to James I of England against the oath of allegiance. This paper explores Bellarmine's politico-theological arguments, comparing them to the Protestant thinkers he took so seriously. They have continued relevance today for disputations concerning religious vs. secular political authority."
In the panel "Weimar, Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Erich Auerbach and the Quest for European Internationalism", sponsored by the Renaissance Studies Certificate Program at CUNY's Graduate Center (10 April, 2.00-3.30 pm, Biblioteca Marciana), Jane O. Newman (University of California, Irvine) will be presenting a paper on "Modernity, Habitus, Ethics: Worldliness in Auerbach's Dante and Boccaccio".
Abstract: "In his 1921 dissertation on the Renaissance novella, Auerbach maintains that 'this-worldliness' is the essence of the Romance tradition. While the exemplum and fabliau appear to offer anterior models, he claims that it was Dante and his focus in the Commedia on 'secular life' that were the origins of this most 'modern' of genres. My paper investigates the evolution of Auerbach's argument about the relation between Dante and Boccaccio between 1921 and 1946 in the context of the political-theological controversies in Germany during the early twentieth century. In the poetry of Auerbach's exceedingly Thomist Dante, the 'image of man' counterintuitively 'eclipses the image of God' and thus counters the 'spiritualizing' 'figural-Christian' logic associated with Protestant dialectical theology. And yet, it is not clear that the ensuing modern world of Boccaccio's Decameron is much better, ensnared as it is in a habitus of worldly desire with no 'constructive ethical force.'"
You can find further information on the conference, including registration, on the RSA's website.
01 December 2009
CONF: Political Theology for the 21st Century? Trends and Tasks
International conference organized by the International Research Network on Religion and Democracy (IRNRD), at Corvinus University of Budapest, Institute of Political Science, Közraktár utca 4-6, Room 510, 1093 Budapest, Hungary, 14-15 December 2009
The manifold developments that characterize the contemporary cultural, political, and religious scenery have recently engendered intensive attention concerning political theology – taking this term in the widest possible sense. New trends and traditional ideas equally colour these movements for reinventing and redefining the tasks of political theology in the current era. The conference's main purpose is to give a rich, though not exhaustive, overview of some contemporary theoretical approaches related to this topic in philosophy, theology, and political theory.
The conference starts at 8.45 am on 14 December and ends with lunch on 15 December.
Presentations (in five panels) include: "The Secular Sphere in Western Theology – A Historical Reconsideration" (Matthias Riedl, Central European University); "Liberation Theology in Latin America and its Theological Legacies" (David Tombs, Trinity College Dublin); "Metzean Categories for a Politics of Peace" (Péter Losonczi, University of West Hungary); "The Political Theology of Navayana Buddhism" (Aakash Singh, LUISS University, Rome); "Laestadianism: Political Theology and Civil Religion in Secularizing Finland" (Mika Luoma-aho, University of Lapland); "Active and Non-violent Resistance and the Jesus of Nazareth" (András Csepregi, Evangelical Lutheran Theological University, Budapest); "The Interruption of Political Theology" (Lieven Boeve, Catholic University Leuven); "What is Radical Orthodoxy?" (Catherine Pickstock, Cambridge, read out in absentia); "Political Theology and its Discontents" (Michael Hoelzl, University of Manchester); "The Politics of Kant's Religion" (Tom Bailey, John Cabot University, Rome); "Separation Between State and Church and Unity Between Religion and Politics: A Contribution to the Current Debate from a Hegelian Perspective" (Peter Jonkers, Tilburg University); "Neutralizing and Politicizing of Religion: The Actuality of Carl Schmitt's Definition of the Problem" (Theo de Wit, Tilburg University); "Nature, Metaphysics, and Political Wisdom" (András Lánczi, Corvinus University); "Religion, Politics, and the Classroom Walls" (Domenico Melidoro, LUISS University); as well as a panel discussion on "Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical Caritas in Veritate" with Lieven Boeve, Michael Hoelzl, and Peter Jonkers.
Contact: Péter Losonczi (University of West Hungary, Szombathely): lospeter@yahoo.com
The manifold developments that characterize the contemporary cultural, political, and religious scenery have recently engendered intensive attention concerning political theology – taking this term in the widest possible sense. New trends and traditional ideas equally colour these movements for reinventing and redefining the tasks of political theology in the current era. The conference's main purpose is to give a rich, though not exhaustive, overview of some contemporary theoretical approaches related to this topic in philosophy, theology, and political theory.
The conference starts at 8.45 am on 14 December and ends with lunch on 15 December.
Presentations (in five panels) include: "The Secular Sphere in Western Theology – A Historical Reconsideration" (Matthias Riedl, Central European University); "Liberation Theology in Latin America and its Theological Legacies" (David Tombs, Trinity College Dublin); "Metzean Categories for a Politics of Peace" (Péter Losonczi, University of West Hungary); "The Political Theology of Navayana Buddhism" (Aakash Singh, LUISS University, Rome); "Laestadianism: Political Theology and Civil Religion in Secularizing Finland" (Mika Luoma-aho, University of Lapland); "Active and Non-violent Resistance and the Jesus of Nazareth" (András Csepregi, Evangelical Lutheran Theological University, Budapest); "The Interruption of Political Theology" (Lieven Boeve, Catholic University Leuven); "What is Radical Orthodoxy?" (Catherine Pickstock, Cambridge, read out in absentia); "Political Theology and its Discontents" (Michael Hoelzl, University of Manchester); "The Politics of Kant's Religion" (Tom Bailey, John Cabot University, Rome); "Separation Between State and Church and Unity Between Religion and Politics: A Contribution to the Current Debate from a Hegelian Perspective" (Peter Jonkers, Tilburg University); "Neutralizing and Politicizing of Religion: The Actuality of Carl Schmitt's Definition of the Problem" (Theo de Wit, Tilburg University); "Nature, Metaphysics, and Political Wisdom" (András Lánczi, Corvinus University); "Religion, Politics, and the Classroom Walls" (Domenico Melidoro, LUISS University); as well as a panel discussion on "Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical Caritas in Veritate" with Lieven Boeve, Michael Hoelzl, and Peter Jonkers.
Contact: Péter Losonczi (University of West Hungary, Szombathely): lospeter@yahoo.com
23 November 2009
Habermas on political theology (audio)
This autumn, renowned German philosopher Jürgen Habermas gave a doctoral seminar at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, "From Political Theology to the Political Philosophy of Religion".
In addition, on 22 October 2009 a symposium took place at New York University (NYU) titled "Rethinking Secularism: The Power of Religion in the Public Square", with presentations by Habermas, Judith Butler, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West. Habermas' paper bore the title: "'The Political' – The Rational Sense of a Questionable Inheritance of Political Theology".
The US Social Science Research Council (SSRC), a co-sponsor of the symposium, has now made the audio of all presentations at this conference (including Habermas' thoughts on political theology) available online:
http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2009/11/02/rethinking-secularism-audio/
Here's Habermas' course description for Stony Brook (a concise summary of his philosophical programme in this area): "This seminar will begin with a systematic comparison of two great German figures in first half of the last century, Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt. Both stand for polar positions, one putting Classical Antiquity against monotheism, the other defending a return to a pre-Hobbesian Catholicism. Then we will engage the work of two important theologians, each representing different version of political theology, from the theological camp: Gustavo Gutierrez and Johann Baptist Metz. These comparisons then will be juxtaposed to recent discussions in the United States about public role of religion, especially as it is taken up in the work of Wolterstorff. The seminar, thus, moves from political theology formulated from without theology, to political theology formulated from within, to then conclude with a political philosophical analysis of religion in the public sphere that is agnostic and abstemious about theological claims."
In addition, on 22 October 2009 a symposium took place at New York University (NYU) titled "Rethinking Secularism: The Power of Religion in the Public Square", with presentations by Habermas, Judith Butler, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West. Habermas' paper bore the title: "'The Political' – The Rational Sense of a Questionable Inheritance of Political Theology".
The US Social Science Research Council (SSRC), a co-sponsor of the symposium, has now made the audio of all presentations at this conference (including Habermas' thoughts on political theology) available online:
http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2009/11/02/rethinking-secularism-audio/
Here's Habermas' course description for Stony Brook (a concise summary of his philosophical programme in this area): "This seminar will begin with a systematic comparison of two great German figures in first half of the last century, Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt. Both stand for polar positions, one putting Classical Antiquity against monotheism, the other defending a return to a pre-Hobbesian Catholicism. Then we will engage the work of two important theologians, each representing different version of political theology, from the theological camp: Gustavo Gutierrez and Johann Baptist Metz. These comparisons then will be juxtaposed to recent discussions in the United States about public role of religion, especially as it is taken up in the work of Wolterstorff. The seminar, thus, moves from political theology formulated from without theology, to political theology formulated from within, to then conclude with a political philosophical analysis of religion in the public sphere that is agnostic and abstemious about theological claims."
29 May 2009
CONF: Political Philosophy vs. Political Theology?
Theological Faculty of the University of Innsbruck, Austria,
11-13 June 2009
Conference (Fachtagung): "Politische Philosophie vs. Politische Theologie? Die Frage der Gewalt im Spannungsfeld von Politik und Religion" ("Political Philosophy vs. Political Theology? The Question of Violence in the Area of Tension between Politics and Religion")
Organized by the ARGE "Politik, Religion, Gewalt" ("Politics, Religion, Violence") of the Österreichische Forschungsgemeinschaft (Austrian Research Association) and the research platform "Weltordnung – Religion – Gewalt" ("World order – Religion – Violence") of the University of Innsbruck.
This conference will build up on an argument advanced by Mark Lilla in his recent book, The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (2007), claiming that in the modern West, in consequence of the religious wars of the seventeenth century and the works of Hobbes, Locke, and Hume, political theology was replaced by political philosophy. Lilla calls this the "Great Separation".
What he identifies as liberal political theologies of the nineteenth century (Harnack, Troeltsch, Cohen), following on from Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel, according to Lilla, was not able to live up to the religious expectations people had after the crisis of the First World War – their God had been "stillborn". Theological protest against liberal theology awoke in Karl Barth and Franz Rosenzweig and various forms of political theology, with different political leanings (from religious socialism [Tillich] to national socialism [Hirsch, Gogarten]), gained importance at that time. Heinrich Meier makes an equal distinction between political philosophy and political theology when comparing Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt.
The conference will be discussing the arguments by Lilla and Meier in light of the currently observed return of the religious into politics, particularly with regard to violence and Islam. From a historical perspective, it will also study "political religions" such as religious socialism, Marxism-Leninism, and national socialism.
The programme of the conference (which will be held in German) is available at:
www.uibk.ac.at/plattform-wrg/projekte/arge/arge-fachtagung_2009_programm.pdf
For further information and registration, please contact Maria Hahnen or Mathias Moosbrugger: mathias.moosbrugger@student.uibk.ac.at
Officially, the deadline for registration was 11 May 2009.
11-13 June 2009
Conference (Fachtagung): "Politische Philosophie vs. Politische Theologie? Die Frage der Gewalt im Spannungsfeld von Politik und Religion" ("Political Philosophy vs. Political Theology? The Question of Violence in the Area of Tension between Politics and Religion")
Organized by the ARGE "Politik, Religion, Gewalt" ("Politics, Religion, Violence") of the Österreichische Forschungsgemeinschaft (Austrian Research Association) and the research platform "Weltordnung – Religion – Gewalt" ("World order – Religion – Violence") of the University of Innsbruck.
This conference will build up on an argument advanced by Mark Lilla in his recent book, The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (2007), claiming that in the modern West, in consequence of the religious wars of the seventeenth century and the works of Hobbes, Locke, and Hume, political theology was replaced by political philosophy. Lilla calls this the "Great Separation".
What he identifies as liberal political theologies of the nineteenth century (Harnack, Troeltsch, Cohen), following on from Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel, according to Lilla, was not able to live up to the religious expectations people had after the crisis of the First World War – their God had been "stillborn". Theological protest against liberal theology awoke in Karl Barth and Franz Rosenzweig and various forms of political theology, with different political leanings (from religious socialism [Tillich] to national socialism [Hirsch, Gogarten]), gained importance at that time. Heinrich Meier makes an equal distinction between political philosophy and political theology when comparing Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt.
The conference will be discussing the arguments by Lilla and Meier in light of the currently observed return of the religious into politics, particularly with regard to violence and Islam. From a historical perspective, it will also study "political religions" such as religious socialism, Marxism-Leninism, and national socialism.
The programme of the conference (which will be held in German) is available at:
www.uibk.ac.at/plattform-wrg/projekte/arge/arge-fachtagung_2009_programm.pdf
For further information and registration, please contact Maria Hahnen or Mathias Moosbrugger: mathias.moosbrugger@student.uibk.ac.at
Officially, the deadline for registration was 11 May 2009.
17 February 2009
Political theology "to the right of God"
Those speaking (reading) German may be interested in an article on the links between the Christian right (in Europe) and political right-wing extremism that appeared in this week's edition of the (notoriously anti-Christian) German magazine “Spiegel”:
www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,607625,00.html
The argument, in the words of the Vicar General of the Society of St. Pius X, goes that conservatism today has to be political theology (“politische Theologie”) in order to break the dominance of the left and liberalism, thereby casting the cultural hegemony of Islam and the Islamic takeover of urban areas in Western Europe as the enemy that has to be fought off. A conservative counter-revolution, he argues, is impossible without the rediscovery of religion as a public matter, which has to be spiritually based on the Catholic church.
For more on conservatism and political theology, see this 2007 contribution to the political extreme-right publication "Junge Freiheit":
www.jf-archiv.de/archiv07/200723060158.htm
Which essay refers to a little-known political theologian, Nicolás Gómez Dávila:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_G%C3%B3mez_D%C3%A1vila
The central outlet of the proponents of such a political theology, according to the "Spiegel", is a website (“Catholic news”):
www.kreuz.net
There to be found is, for example, a scathing criticism of the "new political theology" of J.B. Metz:
www.kreuz.net/article.7630.html
www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,607625,00.html
The argument, in the words of the Vicar General of the Society of St. Pius X, goes that conservatism today has to be political theology (“politische Theologie”) in order to break the dominance of the left and liberalism, thereby casting the cultural hegemony of Islam and the Islamic takeover of urban areas in Western Europe as the enemy that has to be fought off. A conservative counter-revolution, he argues, is impossible without the rediscovery of religion as a public matter, which has to be spiritually based on the Catholic church.
For more on conservatism and political theology, see this 2007 contribution to the political extreme-right publication "Junge Freiheit":
www.jf-archiv.de/archiv07/200723060158.htm
Which essay refers to a little-known political theologian, Nicolás Gómez Dávila:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_G%C3%B3mez_D%C3%A1vila
The central outlet of the proponents of such a political theology, according to the "Spiegel", is a website (“Catholic news”):
www.kreuz.net
There to be found is, for example, a scathing criticism of the "new political theology" of J.B. Metz:
www.kreuz.net/article.7630.html
28 January 2009
CFP: Special issue on religion, political theology, and IR
"Perspectives: Review of International Affairs" invites authors to submit their papers for a special issue on religion in international relations and the political theology of international relations.
The editors of the special issue still accept proposals, although the deadline is quickly approaching. If anyone is interested, please submit an abstract as soon as possible.
Background:
The growing interest of the scholarly community in the resurgence of religion after the constructivist turn and the renewed attention to the relation between the discipline’s evolution and religion has led the editors to dedicate the next special issue of the journal to the exploration of the relevance of religion for international relations. Both purely theoretical articles and theoretically relevant empirical studies will be welcome. Every article submitted for publication undergoes the process of double-blind peer review.
On the journal:
"Perspectives" is a distinguished peer-reviewed scholarly journal published twice a year in English. It has been published since 1993, and by now it has established itself as a leading journal in Central and Eastern Europe.
Databases abstracting/indexing the journal: Academic Search Premier (via EBSCO), ABI/INFORM Global, Academic Research Library (via ProQuest), World Affairs Online, Columbia International Affairs Online, IBSS London School of Economics and Political Science, etc.
Contact:
Perspectives: perspectives@iir.cz
Editor-in-Chief: Petr Kratochvíl, kratochvil@iir.cz
Associate Editor: Mats Braun, braun@iir.cz
The guidelines for authors and more can be retrieved from www.iir.cz/perspectives
The editors of the special issue still accept proposals, although the deadline is quickly approaching. If anyone is interested, please submit an abstract as soon as possible.
Background:
The growing interest of the scholarly community in the resurgence of religion after the constructivist turn and the renewed attention to the relation between the discipline’s evolution and religion has led the editors to dedicate the next special issue of the journal to the exploration of the relevance of religion for international relations. Both purely theoretical articles and theoretically relevant empirical studies will be welcome. Every article submitted for publication undergoes the process of double-blind peer review.
On the journal:
"Perspectives" is a distinguished peer-reviewed scholarly journal published twice a year in English. It has been published since 1993, and by now it has established itself as a leading journal in Central and Eastern Europe.
Databases abstracting/indexing the journal: Academic Search Premier (via EBSCO), ABI/INFORM Global, Academic Research Library (via ProQuest), World Affairs Online, Columbia International Affairs Online, IBSS London School of Economics and Political Science, etc.
Contact:
Perspectives: perspectives@iir.cz
Editor-in-Chief: Petr Kratochvíl, kratochvil@iir.cz
Associate Editor: Mats Braun, braun@iir.cz
The guidelines for authors and more can be retrieved from www.iir.cz/perspectives
27 January 2009
Comparative Political Theology
The Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) organized the section "Political Theology as Political Theory" at the Fourth General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), University of Pisa, Italy, 6 September 2007.
In the third panel on "Political Theology and Theological Politics", Erich Kofmel introduced the concept of "Comparative Political Theology":
www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/generalconference/pisa/papers/PP1206.pdf
A revised version of this paper will be published in "Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology", by Erich Kofmel (Editor), Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic, on 1 August 2009.
In the third panel on "Political Theology and Theological Politics", Erich Kofmel introduced the concept of "Comparative Political Theology":
www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/generalconference/pisa/papers/PP1206.pdf
A revised version of this paper will be published in "Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology", by Erich Kofmel (Editor), Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic, on 1 August 2009.
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