Political Worship: Ethics for Christian Citizens

Bernd Wannenwetsch

Oxford University Press, 2004-08-12 - 402 pages

How does Christian ethics begin? This pioneering study explores the grammar of the Christian life as it is embodied and learned in worship as the formative experience of the 'fellow citizens of God's people'. The book presents the first in-depth theological investigation of the phenomenon of'political worship' by exposing the political nature of worship and the worship dimension of politics. In a careful analysis of biblical and traditional conceptions of worship, Wannenwetsch demonstrates how the genuine political character of worship neutralizes attempts to politicize or de-politicize it. In the imprinting of the experience of divine reconciliation on the Christian body, worshipchallenges the deepest antagonisms of political theory and practice: antagonisms of 'private and public', 'freedom and necessity', and 'action and contemplation'. At the same time, the 'spill over' of worship into every sphere of life instils a healthy suspicion of post-liberal conceptualizations ofrole-mobility. In the experience of 'hearing in communion', an encounter with a word that does not deceive announces the end of the rule of the hermeneutics of suspicion.Further questions discussed include the conditions of true consensus, forgiveness as a political virtue, 'political rhetoric' between accountability and self-justification, how 'reversible role-taking' can avoid losing the otherness of the other, and how the rhetoric of 'responsibility' can be savedfrom hubris or depression. Particular practices or dimensions of worship (confession, preaching, praising, intercession, observance of holy days) are examined and their heuristic and formative potentials explored in relation to these topics. A special feature of the study is a strong ecumenical andinternational focus. The book brings into conversation a variety of traditions (including Lutheran, Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox) and contemporary voices. An original contribution to Christian ethics, the book addresses systematic and practical theology as well as political theory, while indicating the essentialinterpenetration of these disciplines.

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Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good

Mary M. Keys

Cambridge University Press, 2006 - 255 pages

Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good claims that contemporary theory and practice have much to gain from engaging Aquinas's normative concept of the common good and his way of reconciling religion, philosophy, and politics. Examining the relationship between personal and common goods, and the relation of virtue and law to both, Mary M. Keys shows why Aquinas should be read in addition to Aristotle on these perennial questions. She focuses on Aquinas's Commentaries as mediating statements between Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics and, Aquinas's own Summa Theologiae, showing how this serves as the missing link for grasping Aquinas's understanding of Aristotle's thought, in relation to Aquinas's own considered views. Keys argues provocatively that Aquinas's Christian faith opens up new panoramas and possibilities for philosophical inquiry and insights into ethics and politics. Her book shows how religious faith can assist sound philosophical inquiry into the foundation and proper purposes of society and politics.

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Paul and Politics: Ekklesia, Israel, Imperium, Interpretation : Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl

Richard A. Horsley

Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000 - 248 pages

Interpretation of Paul has long been dominated by Lutheran/Protestant theological concerns. Paul has been treated as primarily concerned with narrowly personal religious issues, and critics have often contended that Paul was a conservative regarding social issues.The contributors to this volume deal in original and provocative fashion with several interrelated issues running through Paul's letters and their subsequent interpretation in Christian history. The essays cover several interrelated topics concerning Paul and politics: Paul and the politics of interpretation; Paul and the politics of the Roman Empire; Paul and the politics of Israel (relations of Jews and Gentiles); Paul and the politics of the churches (relations of women and men, slaves and free). Contributors include: Krister Stendahl (Harvard Divinity School); Elisabeth Sch ssler Fiorenza (Harvard Divinity School); Richard A. Horsley (University of Massachusetts, Boston); Alan Segal (Barnard College); Antoinette C. Wire (San Francisco Theological Seminary); N. T. Wright (Westminster Cathedral); Sheila Briggs (University of Southern California); Cynthia Briggs Kittredge (Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest); Pamela Eisenbaum (Iliff School of Theology); Mark Nanos (Lees Summit, Missouri); Allen Callahan (Harvard Divinity School); Sze-kar Wan (Andover Newton Theological School); Robert Jewett (Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary); and Neil Elliott (Seabury Western).Richard A. Horsley is Professor of Classics and Religion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and is the author of numerous books including Galilee: History, Politics, and People

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Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism

Clayton Crockett

Columbia University Press, 2011-03-01 - 202 pages

In the 1960s, the strict opposition between the religious and the secular began to break down, blurring the distinction between political philosophy and political theology. This collapse contributed to the decline of modern liberalism, which supported a neutral, value-free space for capitalism. It also deeply unsettled political, religious, and philosophical realms, forced to confront the conceptual stakes of a return to religion. Gamely intervening in a contest that defies simple resolutions, Clayton Crockett conceives of the postmodern convergence of the secular and the religious as a basis for emancipatory political thought. Engaging themes of sovereignty, democracy, potentiality, law, and event from a religious and political point of view, Crockett articulates a theological vision that responds to our contemporary world and its theo-political realities. Specifically, he claims we should think about God and the state in terms of potentiality rather than sovereign power. Deploying new concepts, such as Slavoj }i~ek's idea of parallax and Catherine Malabou's notion of plasticity, his argument engages with debates over the nature and status of religion, ideology, and messianism. Tangling with the work of Derrida, Deleuze, Spinoza, Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, John D. Caputo, and Catherine Keller, Crockett concludes with a reconsideration of democracy as a form of political thought and religious practice, underscoring its ties to modern liberal capitalism while also envisioning a more authentic democracy unconstrained by those ties.

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Politics, Theology, and History

Raymond Plant

Cambridge University Press, 2001-01-29 - 380 pages

Politics, Theology and History is a major new book by a prominent academic and an active politician. It ranges widely across the disciplines of theology, political theory and philosophy and poses acute questions about the basic moral foundations of liberal societies. Lord Plant focuses on the role that religious belief can and ought to play in argument about public policy in a pluralistic society. He examines the potential political implications of Christian belief and the ways in which it may be deployed in political debate. The book discusses the place of religious belief in the formation of policy and asks what issues in modern society might be the legitimate objects of a Christian social and political concern. This important study of the relationship between religion and politics will be of value to students, academics, politicians, church professionals, policy makers and all concerned with the moral fabric of contemporary life.

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Theology in the Public Square: Church, Academy and Nation

Gavin D'Costa

Wiley-Blackwell, 2005-12-19 - 247 pages

This study shows how theology lost its pivotal role, along with philosophy, within the history of the western university. Reflecting on his own extensive academic experience, Gavin D'Costa sketches out a fascinating project, whereby theology may once more become "queen of the sciences." However, this requires rethinking the role of education and challenging modernist and postmodern visions of the university. He imagines what a Christian university might deliver: a challenge to the practice of various academic disciplines, giving detailed examples regarding religious studies and physics; as well as fostering the possibility of a genuinely intellectual Christian culture.
The book feeds into debates about the religious identity of denominationally founded universities, taking as a test case Roman Catholic universities within the United States, and the role of freedom, funding, research, and progress within such universities. It also forms part of a wider attempt to propose a vital public role for theology that enables it to serve the Church, and engage the university, and the wider secular and inter-religious culture in which we live. This book will be of interest to those concerned with the future of the university as well as to students and teachers of theology and religion.

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Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola: Religion and Politics, 1490-1498

Girolamo Savonarola, Anne Borelli, Maria C. Pastore Passaro

Yale University Press, 2006-03-15 - 381 pages

Five hundred years after his death at the stake, Girolamo Savonarola remains one of the most fascinating figures of the Italian Renaissance. This wide-ranging collection, with an introduction by historian Alison Brown, includes translations of his sermons and treatises on pastoral ministry, prophecy, politics, and moral reform, as well as the correspondence with Alexander VI that led to Savonarola's silencing and excommunication. Also included are first-hand accounts of religio-civic festivities instigated by Savonarola and of his last moments. This collection demonstrates the remarkable extent of Savonarola's contributions to the religious, political, and aesthetic debates of the late fifteenth century.

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God and Earthly Power: An Old Testament Political Theology

J. G. McConville

Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008-09-16 - 200 pages

In "God and Earthly Power" J. G. McConville considers the nature of human power in the light of belief in God. The Bible, and especially the Old Testament, is relevant to the question, not least because perceptions about the use of power in relation to God are often derived correctly or incorrectly from it. This book thus aims to address a world in which God's power is often invoked, from quite different quarters, in order to justify political and military action.
McConville's interpretation of the Old Testament focuses on Deuteronomy and the narrative in which it is set, because these are especially fruitful for political thinking. His case is argued for both exegetically and in relation to the actual use of the Old Testament in the history of political thought. McConville's core argument is that divine power, mediated through Torah, results in human freedom and a mandate for the political responsibility of citizens. Indeed, it is even the best guarantee of these

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The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology

Peter Scott, William T. Cavanaugh

John Wiley & Sons, 2004 - 566 pages

Written by a team of international experts, this Companion provides the first comprehensive survey and interpretation of contemporary Christian political theology.The Companion comprises 35 freshly-commissioned essays which embody the best current thinking in the field. These essays:-Explore the political aspects of Christian sources such as scripture and liturgyConsider the interface of theology with political ideologies, including the contribution of theology to feminist, ecological, black and pacifist movementsAssess the contribution of major political theologians and theological movementsIndicate how central Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and Christology have politics embedded within themShow how theology impacts upon present-day political issuesTwo concluding essays present Jewish and Muslim perspectives on political theology.The contributors are drawn from various traditions of political theology, but all of them demonstrate that Christian theology is inherently political, and that politics is properly illuminated by Christian perspectives.Written by a team of international experts, this Companion provides the first comprehensive survey and interpretation of contemporary Christian political theology.The Companion comprises 35 freshly-commissioned essays which embody the best current thinking in the field. These essays:-Explore the political aspects of Christian sources such as scripture and liturgyConsider the interface of theology with political ideologies, including the contribution of theology to feminist, ecological, black and pacifist movementsAssess the contribution of major political theologians and theological movementsIndicate how central Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and Christology have politics embedded within themShow how theology impacts upon present-day political issuesTwo concluding essays present Jewish and Muslim perspectives on political theology.The contributors are drawn from various traditions of political theology, but all of them demonstrate that Christian theology is inherently political, and that politics is properly illuminated by Christian perspectives.

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An Angel Directs the Storm: Apocalyptic Religion and American Empire

Michael S. Northcott

I.B.Tauris, 2004 - 200 pages

This passionately argued book provides the first in-depth investigation of the religious politics of current American neo-conservatism. It shows that behind the neo-imperialism of the White House and George W. Bush lies an apocalyptic vision of the United States's sacred destiny "at the end of history", a vision that is shared by millions of Americans. The authors trace the roots of American apocalyptic to Puritan Millennialism and contemporary fundamentalist readings of the Book of Revelation. They suggest that Americans urgently need to recover a critique of Empire of the kind espoused by the founder of Christianity--or else risk becoming idolaters of a new Holy Roman Empire that leads others into servitude.

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The Podium, the Pulpit, and the Republicans: How Presidential Candidates Use Religious Language in American Political Debate

Frederick Stecker

ABC-CLIO, 2011-07-22 - 229 pages

In The Podium, the Pulpit, and the Republicans: How Presidential Candidates Use Religious Language in American Political Debate, a veteran minister analyzes the religious metaphors Republicans use at the podium and alleges that the party deliberately employs blaming tactics, fear metaphors, and coded references to apocalyptic judgment to sway undecided voters. Over the past 40 years, Frederick Stecker charges, the Republican Party has created fear for political expediency. Stecker's book traces the development of the Republican rhetoric of polarization and applies the linguistics-based "nation-as-a-family" political typology of George Lakoff to an analysis of the presidential debates of 2000, 2004, and 2008. He demonstrates how Republican candidates select their language and metaphors to signal adherence to rigid belief systems and simple, black-and-white choices in domestic and foreign policy.

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