Religion and Political Thought

This book provides an essential resource for studies in religion and politics. It is divided into three parts, beginning with an introduction outlining the contemporary relevance of reviewing the relationship between the two subject areas; a brief history of the interactions between religion and politics that have pertained both in East and the West, and the key concepts that relate these two fields. The second section comprises a selection of classic readings. Beginning with Aristotle, the readings explore the metaphor of the body and its political deployment in the mediaeval period, the concern with sovereignty in early modernity, religion and democracy in Enlightenment Europe, religion and democracy in America, nineteenth-century socialism, and twentieth-century concerns with totalitarianism and democracy. The third section comprises an introductory essay followed by eight full-length essays by contemporary thinkers, exploring key ideas that are currently at the forefront of debates concerning religion and political life. Four of these essays move beyond the 'Christian' framing behind the classical texts, to examine how key concepts from this historical legacy have impacted on Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. One other essay explores issues with respect to the politics of gender and liberation theology. The remaining three treat important contemporary issues as represented by three important social/cultural theorists - the state of emergency and the homo sacer, the radical nature of agape and the relationship between democracy and secularism.

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Bli först med att recensera och betygsätt boken Religion and Political Thought - du kan vinna 200 kr varje månad i tävlingen "Månadens recension".

"This is a stimulating collection, with good bibliographical pointers, that opens up major questions for readers at every level"Theological Book Review Vol. 19 No. 1 2007--nicholas Sagovsky

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Michael Hoelzl is lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Manchester. Graham Ward is Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics at the University of Manchester.

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I Introduction; Essay on religion and political thought.; II Classical Texts; 1. Introduction to and overview of the Classical Material beginning with Aristotle's analysis of different political forms of governance; 2. The Body Metaphor in Christian Polity; Augustine, excerpt from 'City of God'; John of Salisbury, excerpt from 'Policratus'; Aquinas, excerpt from 'On Government'; Boniface VIII, 'Unam Sanctam'; 3. The Battle for Sovereignty in Early Modernity; Martin Luther, excerpt from 'An Address to German Noblemen'; Jean Bodin, excerpt from 'Six Books on the Commonwealth'; James I, excerpt from 'Basilicon Doron'; Thomas Hobbes, excerpt from 'Leviathan'; Enlightenment; a) Monarchy and Parliamentarism in Europe; Jean Jacques Rousseau, excerpt from 'The Social Contract'; Joseph de Maistre, excerpt from 'On Constitution'; The French Constitution of 1793; Immanuel Kant, 'What is Enlightenment?'; b) Democracy and Constitutionalism in the United States; Thomas Paine, excerpt from 'Common Sense'; Constitution of the United States 1787; Excerpts from The Federalist Papers; Alexis de Tocqueville, excerpt from 'Democracy in America'; 5. From Marx to Socialism; Karl Marx, 'Introduction to the Critique OF Hegel's Philosophy of Right'; Max Weber, excerpt from 'Prostestantism and the Spirit of Capitalism'; Simone Weil, excerpt from 'The need for roots'; 6. Totalitarian Seduction in Democracy; Carl Schmitt, excerpt from 'Political Theology'; Hannah Arendt, 'Banality of Evil'; Eric Voegelin, excerpt from 'Political Religion'; III Current Debates; Giorgio Agamben, excerpt from 'Homo Sacer'; Slavoj Zizek, excerpt from 'Did Anyone say Totalitarianism?'; Charles Taylor, excerpt from 'Secularism and Democracy'; Johann Baptist Metz, excerpt from 'New Political Theology'; Marcella Althaus Reid (commissioned essay on Liberation Theology and Gender Politics); John Zavos (commissioned essay on Hinduism and Nationalism); Francesca Tarrocco (commissioned essay on Buddhism and the New China); Andreas Christmann (commissioned essay on Islamic Fundamentalism).

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