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One of the perennial questions in political theology is how the concept of truth is defined and how such is grounded theologically. The answer to this determines, to a great degree, theological engagement with and appropriations of political systems and theological accounts of political and social order. Truth and Politics tackles this crucial question through an analysis and comparison of the thought of two of the most important contemporary Catholic and Protestant theologians, Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) and John Milbank

A critique of the ideology of neo-liberalism argues that the Left needs to realign itself with more classical ways of thinking, including an openness to religion & the idea that a just politics must refer beyond itself to transcendent norms. Catholic Christian thinking about the social sphere is drawn upon to argue that recent events illustrate that liberal democracy can devolve into a form of tyranny. A sovereign power must consider itself a distributor of the gifts of good governance & ordering as opposed to imposing a fiat for the purpose of increasing the productiveness of a nation-state. The gift is neither a straight line nor a closed circle but a spiral that is both unilateral & reciprocal. The modernity of liberalism has led to mass poverty, inequality, & ecological destruction because liberal democracy ceased to focus on the primary importance of an absolute good. The solution is a new conception of the economy as an exchange of gifts in the sense of both talents & valued objects that blend material benefit with sacramental significance. J. Lindroth

Comments on the widespread outrage over the terrorist attacks of 11 Sept 2001, given that the death of thousands due to political violence is fairly commonplace & that the US may have already killed far more with its sanctions. The outrage is predicated on the assumption that only state power has the right to kill on so large a scale; moreover, some of the official outrage masked pleasure over the apparent justification for the West to strengthen hegemony & globalization under the guise of "fighting terrorism." Globalization is no less than US neocolonialism, purely economic in its objective & interested solely in disseminating America's own (illusory) freedom. Bush's invocation of a state of emergency of undetermined duration amounts to totalitarianism, exempting the sovereign state from criminal, civil, & military law. The US is mistaken in characterizing Islam as a theocratic, anti-modern Other & claiming that global terrorism is on the rise. Such characterizations serve chiefly to bolster US global influence despite the Bush administration's unilateralism & to provide a smokescreen for oil interests' continuing pursuit of Middle Eastern resources. Moreover, by fighting terror (ie, the massive assault on civilians) with terror, the US effaces any moral differences between itself & the "enemy." Only by foregoing slavish worship of power -- whether that of the secular sovereign state or of religion -- can further catastrophes like the 11 Sept attacks by averted. K. Coddon

The English Hegelian philosopher Gillian Rose attempted a remarkable critique of postmodern and poststructuralist thought, aiming to eschew its celebration of nothingness and death and promotion of an impossibilist ethic, removed from all the circumstances of historical actuality. By contrast to unsituated critiques of all law and governance in the name of aleatory difference and liberty, she insisted on the legal and political framing of all human thought and association. However, the very rigour of her analysis tends to reveal, as in the case of Žižek who was eventually influenced by her, that Hegel's immanent and all-inclusive rationalist horizon is itself nihilistic, suggesting the ultimate proximity of the modern and the postmodern. Rose rightly argued that without 'middle' institutions of civil society, integrating personal with political flourishing, there can be no social nor political order. Yet she also contented that the very emancipatory basis of modern society "dirempts" the personal from the political and the ethical from the legal. The middle has to remain, yet it is now ineluctably broken. Thus latent within her thought, but not fully admitted is the argument that any dialectical attempt to extend enlightenment by healing it through a restoration of the middle will also offend enlightenment in seeking to return to the premodern or "feudal". Hence attempts at reform that Rose herself would seem to half-endorse can only give rise to ersatz 'holy middles' which are themselves ethically estranged from law. Their promotion can only land up reinforcing diremption after all. Thus Rose's 'modernism' looks postmodern after all -- change towards justice becomes aporetic and impossible; attempts to mend must further break apart. To go beyond this one must first point out that not all positive, analogical mediations in human history have been "feudal". Second that the primacy of the [political ignores the even greater primacy of the religious, that is able to integrate the ethical with the "paraethical" -- with circumstances but half-chosen by us -- in a way that does not see this realm as simply violent and outside the ethical, a Machiavellian assumption endorsed by Rose and which is the final basis of her claim for the non-surpassability of diremption. Today the only hope for surpassing political nihilism is a religious reinsertion of the mediating power of corporate bodies, able to relate personal finality to shared human purposes in time. ; The English Hegelian philosopher Gillian Rose attempted a remarkable critique of postmodern and poststructuralist thought, aiming to eschew its celebration of nothingness and death and promotion of an impossibilist ethic, removed from all the circumstances of historical actuality. By contrast to unsituated critiques of all law and governance in the name of aleatory difference and liberty, she insisted on the legal and political framing of all human thought and association. However, the very rigour of her analysis tends to reveal, as in the case of Žižek who was eventually influenced by her, that Hegel's immanent and all-inclusive rationalist horizon is itself nihilistic, suggesting the ultimate proximity of the modern and the postmodern. Rose rightly argued that without 'middle' institutions of civil society, integrating personal with political flourishing, there can be no social nor political order. Yet she also contented that the very emancipatory basis of modern society "dirempts" the personal from the political and the ethical from the legal. The middle has to remain, yet it is now ineluctably broken. Thus latent within her thought, but not fully admitted is the argument that any dialectical attempt to extend enlightenment by healing it through a restoration of the middle will also offend enlightenment in seeking to return to the premodern or "feudal". Hence attempts at reform that Rose herself would seem to half-endorse can only give rise to ersatz 'holy middles' which are themselves ethically estranged from law. Their promotion can only land up reinforcing diremption after all. Thus Rose's 'modernism' looks postmodern after all -- change towards justice becomes aporetic and impossible; attempts to mend must further break apart. To go beyond this one must first point out that not all positive, analogical mediations in human history have been "feudal". Second that the primacy of the [political ignores the even greater primacy of the religious, that is able to integrate the ethical with the "paraethical" -- with circumstances but half-chosen by us -- in a way that does not see this realm as simply violent and outside the ethical, a Machiavellian assumption endorsed by Rose and which is the final basis of her claim for the non-surpassability of diremption. Today the only hope for surpassing political nihilism is a religious reinsertion of the mediating power of corporate bodies, able to relate personal finality to shared human purposes in time.

Elaborates on Catherine Pickstock's (1998) theology of the mundane & reviews current theory on postmodern alienation in search of a viable liturgy for modern Western capitalist society. At issue is the increasing loss of community in the rise of global capitalism, where communitarians on the Left & libertarians on the Right have lost all spiritual bearing under the dominance of economic pursuit. It is contended that modern attempts to generate community through common interest single-issue groups (eg, environmentalism, gay rights) lack a necessary sacred element. Further, this sacred element, in an otherwise secular society, can be found in the universal notion of time, its inevitable passing & leveling effect on all material pursuits. Drawing on Pickstock's theological perspective on time, three modes of liturgy are identified in the modern pursuit of meaning: (1) festival, where the enjoyment of life's passage is expressed through acts of generosity that induce social bonding; (2) education, where the passage of time for one individual is perceived as a continual learning process; & (3) profession, where repeated skill & the role of practice represent ultimate virtue & self-sacrifice. D. Bajo

Beyond Secular Order is the first of a two-volume work that expands upon renowned theologian John Milbank's innovative attempt to understand both theology and modern thought begun in his previously published classic text Theology and Social Theory . Continues Milbank's innovative attempt to understand both theology and modern thought begun in Theology and Social Theory -- considered a classic work in the development of systematic theology Authored by one of the world's most influential and highly regarded contemporary theologians Draws on a sweep of ideas and thinkers to argue that modern secularism is a form of Christian heresy that developed from the Middle Ages and can only be overcome by a renewed account of Christendom Shows how this heresy can be transformed into a richer blend of religion, modernity and politics Reveals how there is a fundamental homology between modern ideas about ontology and knowledge and modern ideas about political action, expressed in both theory and practice. -- Provided by publisher