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This article attempts to draw the scope and content of contemporary Political Theology, based on a review of the 2013 publication titled, Political Theology: Contemporary challenges and future directions, edited by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Klaus Tanner and Michael Welker. The book is a collection of contributions which explore the contemporary content and potential future of the subject discipline. 'Political Theology' as critical theology and as a 'theology with its face towards the world' is committed to 'justice, peace and the integrity of creation' and is multifaceted. It represents a discipline with which theologians reflect on political-theological objectives across continents and paradigms. The article concludes with a brief investigation of the implications of insights offered in the book for the South African context (as part of the African continent). ; http://www.hts.org.za ; am2015

Concern for the environment has developed and intensified over the last few decades to the point where it now dominates much of our contemporary political landscape and culture. The rise of religious environmentalism in particular adds its own distinctive voice to the debate, for it seeks to trace both the malaise and a potential solution to environmental understanding. In Eco-Theology, Celia Deane-Drummond offers a comprehensive resource book for this burgeoning field of enquiry that highlights and seeks to evaluate the merits or otherwise of contemporary eco-theologies. She introduces the reader to critical debates in eco-theology, tracing trends from around the globe and key theological responses, and encourages reflection and analysis through further reading sections at the end of each chapter and questions for discussion.

In a bold, provocative book, Toward An American Theology a young American theologian makes his debut. Herbert Richardson, who is only 36, is an assistant professor of theology at Harvard Divinity School. Heretofore he has only been known in American theological circles, and then not widely, but this book alone establishes him as a profound, creative thinker who will have to be reckoned with in the future. This slight but significant work contains five essays which are very diverse in form and subject matter, but which are yet integrally related to the principal concern of how to formulate a meaningful theology for a modern, technical civilization. Richardson's thesis in brief is this: We are living in a time of historical transition which is also a time of general cultural crisis. In such a period there is a breakdown of habitual modes of thought and action with the result that language no longer functions meaningfully. The new period of history which is beginning will be dominated by social techniques developed by the sociological, psychological, economic, and political sciences. It is a "sociotechnic age," an age which presages a new cultural epoch. We are on the verge of a cybernetic society where rational techniques are applied not only to the production of goods but also to the organization of society. This will require a new theological and institutional expression of Christianity: not one of adjustment—the liberal solution—butone which will develop a conception of God, an eschatological symbolism, and new ethical principles which will relate to and undergird the primary realities of the new cybernetic world.

The article argues that Richard Rorty's idea of edification should be adopted as the central approach of public theology. It begins by outlining Rorty's definition of edification before exploring the argument in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature which led to this definition. Various critical responses are then explored, especially the critique by Roy Bhaskar that Rorty's approach is politically frivolous. However it is suggested that the criticism that Rorty is either relativist or unconcerned with ethical agency is unfair. Instead, rather than being concerned with different types of speaking Truth to power, public theologians should be focused on producing novel, unique and eye-catching redescriptions of social and political phenomena.

Political theology is a broad and diverse series of investigations into the structural relationship between theology and politics – particularly the way that theological categories come to underpin modern political concepts, practices and institutions, such as sovereignty, the nation state and democracy. In this chapter I suggest that political theology is fundamentally concerned with the problem of legitimacy and that it refers to the absent place of the sacred in modern secular societies. As a mode of enquiry, it provides us with an alternative framework in which to understand modes of political experience that cannot be adequately grasped by conventional political theory. The chapter explores the origins of the concept, then turns to Carl Schmitt's influential interpretation of political theology as a secular translation of theological concepts into modern ideas of the sovereign state. It is argued that Schmitt's political theology is a justification for an authoritarian notion of sovereignty defined through the unilateral state of exception. The chapter then turns to alternative post-Schmittian approaches, including more radical interpretations of political or public theology that can inform social and racial justice struggles and climate action. Recent interventions in eco-political theology and economic theology are also considered.

On February 8, 1971, Michel Foucault announced the formation of Le Groupe d&rsquo ; information sur les prisons (the Prisons Information Group [GIP]), a group of activist intellectuals who worked to amplify the voices of those with firsthand knowledge of the prison&mdash ; reflected in their motto, &ldquo ; Speech to the detainees!&rdquo ; In highlighting and circulating subjugated knowledges from within prisons, the GIP not only pursued political and material interventions, but also called for epistemological and methodological shift within intellectual labor about prisons. This essay turns to the work of the GIP, and philosophical reflection on that work, as a resource for contemporary theological methodology. Counter to the optimistic and positive trend in theological turn to practices, this essay draws on Foucault&rsquo ; s work with and reflection on the GIP to argue for a negative theology of practice, which centers on practice (those concrete narratives found in any lived theological context) while, at the same time, sustaining its place in the critical moment of self-reflection ; this means theology exposes itself to the risk of reimagining, in the double-movement of self-critique and other-reponse, what theology is. In order to harness and tap into its own moral, abolitionist imagination, this essay argues that theology must risk (paradoxically) and pursue (ideally) its own abolition&mdash ; it must consider practices outside of its own theological and ecclesial frameworks as potential sources, and it must attend closely, critically, and continually to the ways that Christian practices, and accounts of them, perpetuate and produce harm.

This paper examines the relationship between Comparative Theology, Religious Studies and Theology of Religions and questions whether Comparative Theology is an alternative to the last two. Comparative Theology, a faith seeking understanding practice, may be viewed as an alternative to the Enlightenment ideal of Religious Studies, which seeks "impartiality" and "scientific objectivity" in contrast to Comparative Theology's enquiry into "truth" and "meaning." I suggest, however, that the comparative method employed by both Religious Studies and Comparative Theology is not a neutral space. Hence, the new comparativism in Religious Studies reinstates its search for understanding and its political stand, which blurs the boundaries between Comparative Theology and Religious Studies. Likewise, while Comparative Theology is distinct from the Theology of Religions, it does not pose an alternative to it because Comparative Theology, too, often embodies either a pluralist or an inclusivist approach. ; WOS:000428514500019 ; 2-s2.0-85044737353

The 'Protest' and 'Confessing' Models in the streams of Black Theology of liberation provide a creative link between the Prophetic Theology in the Kairos document (KD) and the Black Theology of liberation. Launched in a distinct moment of history – an 'opportune moment' – the KD propagated the best responses among some and the worst among others as a rapturous critique of State and Church theologies. In this article, I argued that the KD, which remains a version of liberation theology par excellence, offers a methodology that is still appropriate to our democratisation processes in South Africa. The KD is the product of a theology that did not only expand the contours of traditional theology, but also understood confession as a political praxis. Thus, the interest of the poor should still mitigate forth-telling in our democratic vision in dialogue inspired by the alluring prophetic vision of an alternative community based on the principles of the reign of God.

Netflix released Marvel's Luke Cage in 2016 to critical acclaim. Born from a 1970s comic book, the series features Luke Cage, an African-American superhero. Cage is a big, bald, bulletproof black man. Instead of tights and a cape, Cage wears a hoodie calling the audience to remember Trayvon Martin and other victims of white racism. Theologian James Cone created Black Liberation Theology in the 1970s. As a result of Cone's work, Black Liberation Theology addresses the issue of white racism from a theological standpoint. In this thesis I present a close reading of Marvel's Luke Cage using Black Liberation Theology as a theory of communication. Here, I explore three questions. First, how does Marvel's Luke Cage explore Black Liberation Theology's distinction between blackness and whiteness? Secondly, how does Coker use Marvel's Luke Cage to define liberation and use that definition as a platform to inform liberation initiatives in the United States today? Finally, how does Marvel's Luke Cage join Cone in critiquing the church and white theology, and what solutions does Coker present to repair the church and white theology's relationship with blackness? The answers to these three questions work together to affirm the central argument for this thesis: Marvel's Luke Cage employs Black Liberation Theology to practically reimagine Christian theology and the Christian church as liberating forces in the modern world.

In modern philosophy, the concept of ideology has been a problem for the relationship of theology to politics. Especially in its Marxist usage, "ideology" refers to a specific effect that theology has in modern society so as to conceal or hide the material facticity that shapes human life and practical activity. This is one of the many reasons why theology, even in its political form, has not taken up "ideology" as a matter inherent to its critical form. The absence of theoretical attention to ideology in theology itself has led to the deficit of immanent critique, especially in political theology. However, theology and ideology are showing up together in an area where one is least likely to expect it: radical critical theory. Critical theory has repeatedly taken up theology and ideology critique together, so as to use the emancipatory potential of theology to address major political questions amidst our acute awareness of social crisis and political impasse. My dissertation analyzes key theological and philosophical interlocutors (e.g., Slavoj Zizek, Johann Baptist Metz, Paul Tillich, Marcella Althaus-Reid, Theodor Adorno, etc) that represent major trajectories in these two discourses – modern political theology and contemporary political philosophy – in order to promote the role of immanent critique in political theology. This is important because it clarifies the function of ideology critique (and critique in general) in Christian political theology. It also foregrounds how contemporary theories of ideology are mediating the relation of theology to politics, a matter of increased importance given the recent "turn to religion" in contemporary politics and culture? Can political theology still provide norms for establishing a just, egalitarian, and solidaristic social order after critical theory? This dissertations sketches a critical theology that retrieves critique as an intrinsic theological concept in political theology; this redefines theology away providing norms and towards the practice of critique, but ...

There is a constant tension that exists within each individual. This is the struggle between the hidden ideologies and fixed ideas which enslave the individual and the need to rid themselves of them. It is through these that implicit religion forms. We require, in order to counteract this, a new theology, a secular theology – one which emphasizes the individual. In order to bring about a new theology, it is necessary to reconsider the philosophies of Adam Weishaupt, Louis Althusser, and Max Stirner and bring them into the modern discussion of implicit religion. This paper aims to bring together these understudied philosophers as well as contemporary leaders in political theology in order to reimagine the potential of the individual to rid themselves from fixed ideas and to realize their potential.

Black theology in South Africa is still relevant 20 years after the apartheid regime ended. It is a theology that gave to Black South Africans human dignity and a black identity. Black theology in South Africa confronted the imbalances of power and abusive power structures through an affirmation of human dignity and the uniqueness of the identity of black people. The biblical narrative of the Exodus is a definitive narrative in American black theology and liberation theology in overcoming oppression understood as political victimisation. Black theology in South Africa is not primarily about power and economics but also about the rediscovery of human dignity and black identity and to a lesser extent about victimisation. A third generation of black theology in South Africa will gain impetus through a rediscovery of human dignity and identity as its core values instead of a Black American liberation theology of victimisation or a Marxist liberation theology of the eradication of all power or economic imbalances.

For this Special Issue which confronts the ways in which the question of pluralism represents both haunting and promise within modern political theology, I explore the presence of pluralism in the context of the environmental crisis and religious responses to issues such as climate change. Following Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm, I suggest that models of disenchantment are misleading&mdash ; to quote Latour, &ldquo ; we have never been modern.&rdquo ; In engagement with a range of neo-vitalist scholars of enchantment including Rosi Braidotti, Karen Barad, Isabelle Stengers, Jane Bennett and William Connolly, I explore the possibility of a kind of critical-theory cosmopolitics around the concept of &ldquo ; enchantment&rdquo ; as a possible site for multi-religious political theology collaborations and argue that this is a promising post-secular frame for the establishment of cosmopolitical collaborations across quite profound kinds of difference.

The Sewol Ferry tragedy in April 2014 has drawn a renewed attention to the role of religion in South Korea. Theologians and religiously-motivated NGOs in Korea at the time and thereafter have called for the need for religion, and religious organizations, to become more actively involved with societal needs, especially after disasters, to help alleviate their pain by providing relief aid and counselling. Such calls for the greater involvement of religion in relief efforts have coincided with Pope Francis&rsquo ; repeated calls for the Catholic Church&rsquo ; s greater involvement in social affairs on behalf of the poor and the underprivileged. This paper contends that these developments in and outside of Korea provide an opportune time to renew discussion on oft-misunderstood liberation theology. This is because the latter&rsquo ; s advocacy of an interpretation of the teachings of Jesus Christ from the perspective of the poor and the marginalized for the purpose of alleviating unjust economic, social, or political conditions is as compelling today as it was some 60 years ago when it first arose. The paper offers a reassessment of the role of religion in light of liberation theology, arguing that religion can make itself more relevant to people&rsquo ; s lives today by engaging more actively with social issues. The paper will pay special attention to liberation theology in the Korean context, namely minjungshinhak or &ldquo ; people&rsquo ; s theology.&rdquo ; The paper also discusses the implications of liberation theology for secularization theory, arguing, among others, that the former refutes the &ldquo ; decline of religion&rdquo ; thesis of the latter, since liberation theology manifests a different role of religion in contemporary society rather than its diminishing significance.

This article explores the possibilities offered by theories of recognition and identity politics for a better understanding of religious – in this case, Christian – environmentalism. Insights related to recognition are gleaned from literature in ecological theology. Themes for further research and possibilities for practical adaptation are explored. It is argued that theories of recognition help to understand the dynamics related to processes where a certain group asks for more recognition of nature. Identity questions and developments in environmentalism are clarified by an understanding of what happens when partial recognition is granted. The role of mutuality as a basis for recognition is widened by Arto Laitinen's proposal for recognition as "adequate regard" for something, i.e. for an ecosystem. The complex relations between humans and non-human nature are explored through such themes as reciprocity and the question of "voices" of nature. Creaturely difference and the role of seeing a "face" in nature are discussed in relation to recognition. The significance of place and environmental conditions for recognition are probed. Special attention is given to Andrew Dobson's application of Nancy Frazer's theory of transformative recognition to environmental matters, which offers new ways of understanding the role of non-human nature in politics, ethics and discussions on justice. ; Peer reviewed