Transforming Political Theologies – serie

This book, rooted in the disciplines of theology and peace studies, reflects with and on war-affected communities in Colombia about transitioning from violence to peace. It argues that much that is significant for peace- building in situations of war escapes the notice of governments, human rights organizations, and academics because it is accomplished through a kind of agency they do not recognize. This book names that agency as constructive agency under duress and demonstrates its significance for peacebuilding by reflecting on a form that the author has seen operating in Colombia over nearly two decades.

This book, rooted in the disciplines of theology and peace studies, reflects with and on war-affected communities in Colombia about transitioning from violence to peace. It argues that much that is significant for peace- building in situations of war escapes the notice of governments, human rights organizations, and academics because it is accomplished through a kind of agency they do not recognize. This book names that agency as constructive agency under duress and demonstrates its significance for peacebuilding by reflecting on a form that the author has seen operating in Colombia over nearly two decades.

This book provides an itinerary for studying political theology in Chinese society, including mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It explores the changing role of religion in Chinese history, from the rise of Buddhism alongside Confucianism and Daoism, through the arrival of Christianity and Islam, to the suppression of religion under communism. Since the reform and opening period beginning in 1978, China has experienced a resurgence of religiosity, with powerful societal implications. Governing authorities have sought to regulate religious practice in line with their governing system. Political theology in Chinese society is very much in flux and the chapters in this volume provide an array of windows through which to view the evolving reality. They include historical approaches and descriptive analyses, with an interdisciplinary and international range of perspectives by contributors based in and outside China. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of theology, religious studies, and contemporary China studies.

This book provides an itinerary for studying political theology in Chinese society, including mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It explores the changing role of religion in Chinese history, from the rise of Buddhism alongside Confucianism and Daoism, through the arrival of Christianity and Islam, to the suppression of religion under communism. Since the reform and opening period beginning in 1978, China has experienced a resurgence of religiosity, with powerful societal implications. Governing authorities have sought to regulate religious practice in line with their governing system. Political theology in Chinese society is very much in flux and the chapters in this volume provide an array of windows through which to view the evolving reality. They include historical approaches and descriptive analyses, with an interdisciplinary and international range of perspectives by contributors based in and outside China. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of theology, religious studies, and contemporary China studies.

This book offers a concise, yet provocative, summation of Christos Yannaras’ long reflection on the meaning of politics. It provides vital clarification on Yannaras’ conception and understanding of politics and his interpretation of its historical development in the Western and Eastern theological/civilisational traditions. The book critiques the Western (Christian) tradition of political thought and praxis, namely its individualistic epistemology, its utilitarian political organisation, its obsession with rationalistic efficiency, and its religionized Christianity with all the destructive ideologies flowing therefrom. It aims to recover and counterpose a Greco-Christian conception and practice of politics based on communion, the ecclesia, truth as a collective and common contest or struggle to discover, reveal and manifest cosmic reality and an ontological vision of humans living in harmony with the ornamental order of the universe. With a foreword by Rowan Williams, this is a highly original and significant meditation on the meaning of politics that will be of interest to both political theologians and political philosophers.

This book offers a concise, yet provocative, summation of Christos Yannaras’ long reflection on the meaning of politics. It provides vital clarification on Yannaras’ conception and understanding of politics and his interpretation of its historical development in the Western and Eastern theological/civilisational traditions. The book critiques the Western (Christian) tradition of political thought and praxis, namely its individualistic epistemology, its utilitarian political organisation, its obsession with rationalistic efficiency, and its religionized Christianity with all the destructive ideologies flowing therefrom. It aims to recover and counterpose a Greco-Christian conception and practice of politics based on communion, the ecclesia, truth as a collective and common contest or struggle to discover, reveal and manifest cosmic reality and an ontological vision of humans living in harmony with the ornamental order of the universe. With a foreword by Rowan Williams, this is a highly original and significant meditation on the meaning of politics that will be of interest to both political theologians and political philosophers.

This book addresses a lacuna in scholarship concerning Hannah Arendt’s Augustinian heritage that has predominantly focused on her early work. It de-canonises the sources that political theology has appealed to by shifting the interpretive focus to her mature treatment in The Life of the Mind. Arendt’s initial criticism of Augustinian desiring is that it generates 'worldlessness'. In her later works, Arendt develops a more nuanced reading of the movements of thinking, desiring, and loving in her engagement with Augustine. This study attends to these movements and inspects the spatio-temporal framework which structure Arendt’s conception of the political. The author assesses the claim that Arendt’s conception of the political is drawn from a pedagogy of desiring and thinking from Augustine severed from his mystagogy. Although respecting the method of political theory, the author contends that Arendt’s severing of Augustinian pedagogy from mystagogy brings her to an insurmountable aporia. Instead, the author embeds these pedagogical practices within Augustine’s theology and suggests how that aporia might be overcome and used to develop a mystagogy for contemporary political life. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of political theology, as well as political theory, and political philosophy.

At the crossroads of ethics, poetics and politics, this innovative book outlines a series of notes to decolonize political theology. The author proposes counter-hegemonic forms of reading, which deconstruct domination by embracing fragility. The book opens with a diapason of prejudicelessness as a decolonial key, focusing on prejudices that hinder critical attention to a colonial political theology that perpetuates hatred. The first set of notes aims to ‘de-orientalize the Semite’ by reading midrashic and biblical texts in the present context, the second seeks to decolonize language by exploring the power of translation, and the third ponders decolonial theo-logics to outline a justice of the other. Connecting a number of fields, authors, and epistemologies, the book addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and brings together Jewish thought, continental philosophy, and Latin American perspectives. It engages with a range of thinkers, including Benjamin and Arendt, and features an interview with Enrique Dussel as well as a foreword by Gil Anidjar. This is an important methodological proposal for interdisciplinary and intercultural political theology and a valuable contribution towards rethinking the paradigm of political theology beyond its Eurocentric and colonialist premises.

Theopolitics and the Era of the Witness focuses on witnessing in the aftermath of political atrocity or genocide. It offers a diachronic study of the relationship between theological forms of witnessing within Jewish and Christian traditions and public forms of witnessing in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book explores the ways in which various witnesses to political atrocity and their mediators tacitly drew on religious themes of salvation to make sense of their suffering. It investigates survivor testimony and the use made of it through scholarly interpretations of testimony within the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and theological and philosophical traditions within Judaism and Christianity. The chapters move from a consideration of the early post-Shoah writings of Paul Celan and Primo Levi through to a discussion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions of South Africa and Canada. The author makes the case for a "weak messianism" or remnant witnessing as an antidote to overdetermined and politicized uses made of survivor testimonies. This book makes a valuable contribution to the work of theopolitics, which claims that theology, despite its persistent misuse, can serve a constructive and critical force within public life, albeit in a chastened key.

This book addresses a lacuna in scholarship concerning Hannah Arendt’s Augustinian heritage that has predominantly focused on her early work. It de-canonises the sources that political theology has appealed to by shifting the interpretive focus to her mature treatment in The Life of the Mind. Arendt’s initial criticism of Augustinian desiring is that it generates 'worldlessness'. In her later works, Arendt develops a more nuanced reading of the movements of thinking, desiring, and loving in her engagement with Augustine. This study attends to these movements and inspects the spatio-temporal framework which structure Arendt’s conception of the political. The author assesses the claim that Arendt’s conception of the political is drawn from a pedagogy of desiring and thinking from Augustine severed from his mystagogy. Although respecting the method of political theory, the author contends that Arendt’s severing of Augustinian pedagogy from mystagogy brings her to an insurmountable aporia. Instead, the author embeds these pedagogical practices within Augustine’s theology and suggests how that aporia might be overcome and used to develop a mystagogy for contemporary political life. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of political theology, as well as political theory, and political philosophy.

This book presents an original Marian approach towards war and peace, dedicated to the suffering of children, women, and men in Mariupol and elsewhere in Ukraine and in the world. Offering new theological perspectives on the contemporary impact of war, the contributions take inspiration from the figure and symbol of Mary – as protector of children and guardian of peace, intermediary of the incarnation, as well as model for ecumenical, interreligious, and intercultural engagements. The chapters explore the role of Mary as a symbol for feminist and activist reflections, for the communication of suffering as the mater dolorosa, for power when appropriated for political ends, and for healing and reconciliation in peace-building efforts. The book provides readers with valuable theological reflections on conflict, global theological ethics, ecofeminist and peace-building thinking in theology, and contemporary political theology.

At the crossroads of ethics, poetics and politics, this innovative book outlines a series of notes to decolonize political theology. The author proposes counter-hegemonic forms of reading, which deconstruct domination by embracing fragility. The book opens with a diapason of prejudicelessness as a decolonial key, focusing on prejudices that hinder critical attention to a colonial political theology that perpetuates hatred. The first set of notes aims to ‘de-orientalize the Semite’ by reading midrashic and biblical texts in the present context, the second seeks to decolonize language by exploring the power of translation, and the third ponders decolonial theo-logics to outline a justice of the other. Connecting a number of fields, authors, and epistemologies, the book addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and brings together Jewish thought, continental philosophy, and Latin American perspectives. It engages with a range of thinkers, including Benjamin and Arendt, and features an interview with Enrique Dussel as well as a foreword by Gil Anidjar. This is an important methodological proposal for interdisciplinary and intercultural political theology and a valuable contribution towards rethinking the paradigm of political theology beyond its Eurocentric and colonialist premises.