Editorial: Political Theology
Matt H. Qvortrup: Amor Pro Patria - et Deus: Rousseau, Religion, and Nationalism
The relationship between church and state is one of the most enduring themes in political theory. Traditionally religious thinkers have advocated an integration of the two, whereas the case for a separation between Church and State almost exclusively has been championed by secular thinkers (e.g. Rawls). This article presents an outline of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's integration of political theology and nationalism. It is shown that Rousseau by developing a modern equivalent of the doctrine of patriotism was able to find a place for Christianity. In doing so Rousseau squared the political theological circle. Through his doctrine Rousseau was able to stay true to Machiavelli's observation regarding the necessity of a civic religion (in Rousseau's case nationalism), as well as he was able to find room for a religion based on the simple teachings of the Gospels.
Keywords: Christianity; church and state; civic religion; Ernest Gellner; nationalism; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; theories of nationalism.
Mikkel Thorup: 'A World Without Substance': Carl Schmitt and the Counter-Enlightenment
This article deals with the counter-Enlightenment in the works of Joseph de Maistre, Juan Donoso Cortés and Carl Schmitt. Political theology is in this context the assertion of a direct and inevitable connection between religion and politics. Secularism has therefore meant a decline in political authority and sovereignty. The purpose of the article is to explore counter-enlightenment arguments in two early works of Carl Schmitt: Politische Romantik and Römischer Katholizismus und politischer Form. One of the arguments of the article is that the counter-Enlightenment has had three main waves or generations and that each has had to deal with an ever more embedded secularization. Going from the first (Maistre) to the second generation (Cortés), a re-theologization of politics is no longer possible. This is the political challenge that Schmitt as representative for the third generation tries and ultimately fails to meet due to the strength of both secularization and his analysis of it.
Keywords: Juan Donoso Cortés; Joseph de Maistre; Carl Schmitt; political theology.
Mogens Lærke: Jus Circa Sacra: Elements of Theological Politics in 17th Century Rationalism: From Hobbes and Spinoza to Leibniz
The theologico-political reflection in 17th Century rationalism was marked by a long experience of unresoluble religious division and by the dissociation of speculative theology and natural philosophy caused by the advance of the natural sciences. One of the main theological problems discussed in philosophy was that of the judge of controversies, i.e. the problem of the interpretative authority in religion closely linked to the key question concerning the political right over holy matters or jus circa sacra. Taking departure in these general determinations, and after a short historiographical review of the relations between Hobbes, Spinoza and Leibniz, the article outlines the theologico-political theories of Hobbes and Spinoza on jus circa sacra, and discusses how these are reflected and criticised in Leibniz's more moderate and traditional theory. Through expositions of their fundamentally different conceptions of divine nature and law, the article compares how these give rise to three different systems for formulating the relations of authority between Church, State and individual. The article concentrates in particular on showing how Leibniz proposes an alternative to Hobbes's absolutist position and Spinoza's defence of religious liberty that can be understood as a complex balance of authorities based upon a juridical logic of presumptions.
Keywords: divine law; Hobbes; Leibniz; natural right; politics; rationalism; Spinoza; theology.
Catherine Pickstock: Epochs of Modernity: The Implications for Modernity and Post-modernity of Univocity
This essay offers an attempt to explore the relation of the Scotist legacy to modernity and post-modernity. The latter seems but an advanced version of the former, in which the inseparability of univocity, representation and flattened causal interaction on a single plane becomes more fully realised. One might also contend that in this post-Scotist perspective, there is no modern phase at all, and so also no pre-modern to which one might nostalgically make appeal. Instead, there is 'a certain Middle Ages' which has never ceased to be dominant, even now in the twenty-first century. Where, in the midst of all these epochs, which turn out not to be straightforward epochs after all, are we to look?
Keywords: Aquinas; modernity; post-modernity; representation; Duns Scotus; theology; univocity.
Francis Schüssler Fiorenza: Political Theology and the Critique of Modernity: Facing the Challenges of the Present
This paper analyzes three distinct modern articulations of the concept of political theology: the French restoration, Carl Schmitt, and Johann B. Metz. An analysis of their assessments of modernity and the Enlightenment show the role that 'exception' or 'interruption' has within their critique of modernity. Because of the consequences of the appeal to 'exception' by Schmitt and National Socialism, the United Nations, seeking to prevent such use, underscored collective legitimacy in its charter and declarations about human rights. The appeal to 'exception' and 'singularity' emerges again today in both the political advocacy of pre-emption and in the anti-modern critique of Enlightenment rationality. The use of 'exception' in the twentieth century challenges political theology to work out a more nuanced relation to the language of rights and the cosmopolitanism of its ethics and democratic discourse.
Keywords: critique of modernity; discourse ethics; exceptionalism; French restoration; human rights; Political theology.
Manni Crone: Er islamisk sekularisme en selvmodsigelse? (in Danish)
European societies are becoming still more 'postsecular' and we therefore need to gain a much more subtle understanding of what secularism is. This also implies understanding non-European apprehensions of this concept, and in many Muslim countries secularism is a burning issue. Can Islam be secularized? In what way should religion, law and politics be separated? This article presents the thought of the Iranian philosopher Abdolkarim Sorush and the Sudanese human rights expert Abdullahi An-Naim. According to Sorush and An-Naim, religion and secularism are not incompatible opposites, but rather interdependent elements. An-Naim even suggests that we understand secularism not as the separation between religion and state, but rather as a specific relationship between them.
Keywords: democracy; human rights; Islam; Islamic state; post-secularism; secularism; sharia.
Frank Beck Lassen: Forløsning fra denne verdens onder: Politisk-teologisk brug af den kristne eskatologi i sekulariseret form (in Danish)
Politics and theology constitute two domains that we would prefer to understand as separate and as operating according to different principles, but as the term 'political theology' would indicate, certain common traits do exist. Both areas are capable of displaying ardent followers with fierce ideological or dogmatic devotions - devotions that have a history of developing into violent movements. It is the intention of this text to describe and explain in more analytical terms the principal idea behind this devotion, as it arises when certain theological motives achieve their heyday in politics. The key object is therefore the concept of eschatology and the reasons why it constitutes such a central theme in collective redemptive efforts. The text presents itself in three stages. First, the concept of eschatology is introduced, followed by the concept of Gnosticism as an example of the world-negating view inherent in eschatology. Second, it is shown how a present day position in theology is influenced by eschatology. And third, to explain how a once purely transcendent structure may become immanent, the concept of secularization is introduced. Secularization accounts for how theological patterns of interpretation have been transplanted to the secular realm of everyday politics, most prominently through the redemptive concept of eschatology.
Keywords: eschatology; Gnosticism; political theology; redemption; secularization.
Morten Brænder: Hellig krig og civilreligion: Om den religiøse volds forskydning fra kirkens til nationens domæne (in Danish)
Whereas holy war is traditionally reduced to a legal category and a way of legitimating acts of violence that disappeared with the modern schism between political and religious institutions, this article proposes another view. In order to take the role of religion in holy war seriously, we should focus upon the effect of religion in the conduct of war, and the function which the use of religious violence fulfils in its social context. In this respect, the impact of secularization has been shallow, and just like religion in general, religious violence or holy war should rather be looked upon as a social constant. Along with the privatization of faith, the public role of the traditional church religion was slowly taken over by civil religion: With the national cult as medium, national war has been the modern expression of the social constant of holy war - an act of sanctification that can be understood only in religious terms.
Keywords: civil religion; functionalism; holy war; nationalism; re-enchantment.