Political Theology Reimagined

Alex Dubilet is Assistant Professor of English at Vanderbilt University.Vincent W. Lloyd is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University.

“In this bounteous volume, political theology takes stock of its pasts and of its futures. It reveals itself as a discourse of concepts but also of names. What’s in a name? What indeed are the names of political theology? What paleonymy, what onomatology sustain it? What names must it invent, still? Old and new, necessary and unexpected, proper and (un)common - an indispensable nomenclature emerges from each of these rich essays.” - Gil Anidjar, author of On the Sovereignty of Mothers: The Political as Maternal "This important volume expands beyond the usual connection between political theology and Christian doctrine, tracking how previously theological concepts continue to morph into various secular guises. The contributors demonstrate that political theology is a powerful resource by which to both recognize and challenge the modalities of politics and social life that are practiced in our own time. The reimagination that the title points to is not so much a way to start political theology all over again but to focus on its subversive and radical potential." - James R. Martel, author of Anarchist Prophets: Disappointing Vision and the Power of Collective Sight

• Introduction: Political Theology in Riotous Times / Alex Dubilet and Vincent W. Lloyd 1Part 1. Expanded Horizons in Critical Theory1. From Negation to Critique: Adorno on Transcendence / Agata Bielik-Robson 312. Poltical Theology’s Antagonisms: Between Stasis and Gnosis / Alex Dubilet 473. Exchange Beyond Exchange: Kōjin Karatani and the Persistence of the Religious / Martin Shuster 644. Keeping Life Living: Thinking with Michel Henry / Inese Radzins 795. Passionate Thinking: Isabelle Stengers and Political Theology / Ada S. Jaarsma 96Part 2. The Colonial, the Planetary, and the Cosmic6. For a Historical Grammar of Concepts: Thinking About Political Theology with Talal Asad / Basit Kareem Iqbal and Milad Obadaei 1157. The Political as Method: Toward a Postcolonial Political Theology of Islam / Aseel Najib 1288. Postsecular Philosophy and Decolonization as a Political-Theological Struggle / Rafael VizcaÍno 1429. Political Theology and Religious Criticism: B. R. Ambedkar and His Contemporaries / Prathama Banerjee 15610. Cosmic Delegitimation: Toward a Political Theology of Scale / Kirill Chepurin 173Part 3. Race, Blackness, and Modernity11. Rethinking Political Theology as Faith, Poesis, and Praxis / George Shulman 19312. On Black Study and Political Theology / Jaes Edward Ford III 21013. The Science of the Word: Sylvia Wynter, Political Theology, and Human Hybridity / David Kline 22614. Wound or Healing? Black Feminism and Political Theology / Vincent W. Lloyd 242Part 4. Itineraries in Feminism and Gender15. Finding Air: Biomythologies of Breath / Beatrice Marovich 26116. Sovereign Storytelling: A Political Theology of Bad Intentions / Dana Lloyd 27517. Toward an Intersectional Genealogical Method: Silvia Federici as a Paradigm for Political Theology / Adam Kotsko 29018. Political Theology’s Gender Trouble / Siobhan Kelly 30419. Tabitha’s Trauma: Christian Nationalism, Centrist Jeremiad, and the Reconstruction of the American Family / Lucia Hulsether 319Bibliography 337Contributors 369Index 371