He emphasizes that this discourse — unlike philosophy — develops new imaginary forms that guide directly the thinking and acting of people in practi- ces in our era. He analyses this master discourse as morally inflated and, more specifically, lacking the mul- tiplicity of antagonisms hidden in a theological concept of divine love itself. In short: Di- vine love cannot be understood without its antagonistic core as it is by no means equivalent with political innocence.
Abandoned social classes are now energized by identitarian policies of radical immanence and see the remedy in the one voice of the people, in the leader; with resentment playing an essential role of motivation. The negation of everything that is different now serves as a total af- firmation of the self and as a defense against its losses and traumas.
An expres- sion of anti-political self-righteousness takes the lead. Part II — Identity, Diversity, Singularity: The second field of research in this volume is dedicated both to the inevitability of unbound identity formations in modern societies Di Blasi as well as to anti-pluralist authoritarian move- ments which pluralism brings to the fore as its unexpected and often unacknowl- edged downside Finkelde.
Theology has potentials of liberation within this con- flict where heteronomy and hegemony collide. It counters different forms of the fetishization of philosophy and politics Klein and presents within its Christian heritage an anti-ideological form of singularity without identity Nagel.
Di Blasi pursues the division of identity s through their counter-identitie s with reference to other political group-building processes. They concern both the relationship between Christianity and Judaism as well as the relationship be- tween masters and slaves in contemporary debates within social and political philosophy.
This can cause problems as the realm of politics shows. Here the relation of sets and power-sets are a constant struggle for hegemony. This is discussed within radi- cal-democratic theories presented by authors such as Mouffe, Laclau, Abensour, among others who postulate plural rights of difference against hegemonic cul- tures of order.
Rebekka A. Follow- ing Jean-Luc Nancy, she shows that the operation of politics and democracy in the present era can best be described as a process of fetishization. Politics within liberal societies is regarded as the last guarantee of a humane and liberal exis- tence. Lefort pointed out that the mastery of a revolutionary act appears here. This act estab- lishes a style of action without precursors, which is characteristic of radical dem- ocratic practices. She shows how revolution- ary and authoritarian moments of the political intertwine and mutually reinforce each other.
It is a force for enmity and has a highly politicizing effect. Nagel pursues this motive further into Christian theology. He analyzes the concept of pistis faith as a relationship of loyalty that can be ex- pressed in the New Testament both by God and by the human being.
Here, the politically effective distinction between friends and enemies of God continues. But it does so not exclusively in the sense of a fatal distinction between groups of people since the unbelief of the believers themselves proves, from now on, to be an inner exclusion, a rupture of Christian identity itself.
Klein Part III — Post-Political Theology: The third field of research of the volume is dedicated to political theology and its aftermath within postmodern times. And since especially modern capitalism empties the symbol- ic universe of religion, a return of theological symbolism may be an antidote of the predicaments against secular ideologies Milbank.
Politics proves to be sa- turated with its faith-based tradition as modern and authoritarian forms of mes- sianic speech-acts demonstrate Grosser. This includes not only the explic- it reference to God Almighty in religious discourses in which, for example, Chris- tians express themselves, but also the political call for leaders and experts, uni- versities of excellence and Nobel Prize winners.
Stoellger shows that the figure of the master in the theological register is ambivalent. The power of interpretation proves to be an antagonistic effort. Stoellger pleads for a theoretical space in-between relativism and the call for absoluteness where especially medium-theoretical questions prove to have an impact on the search for the master. Human beings are ultimately bound together by objects of their love which are at once concrete and significant.
But capitalism rips the symbol apart into empty matter and meaningless sign or number. The extremity of this process has resulted in a division between an elite of the signs and num- bers on the one hand and a mass of people reduced to marginalized dependence on leached material resources. The former group tends ideologically to favor liberal universalism, the latter a particularistic nationalism.
In order to mediate the particular and the universal we must, according to Milbank, recover the sym- bolic, which is rooted in a religious mediation of transcendence. Thus, there can only be religious solutions to our current dilemma and Christianity most of all is the religion of the paradoxical coincidence of the most general and the most con- crete. But why should this be continued, Weidner asks and presents three different readings of less dogmatic traditions of political theology.
He refers to the early prophets in Jewish theology, to the later prophets and their relation to speech, and, finally, to James Baldwin. The latter is a modern prophet who stirs up the liberal public sphere. In all three forms, the prophet has no means of power to execute his words in order to castigate and smash the existing order — a pro- cedure that is always risky since smashing words tend to turn against oneself.
It can be uncov- ered within the seductive power of messianic forms of politics, as it was already propagated by Barack Obama and his administration. As Theodor W. Adorno has already shown in his analysis of the authoritarian character from , it is not enough to morally reject these gestures of a messianically charged authority.
Rather, it is important to make the disastrous consequences of this rhetorically effective political style clear to the public. To counter this development of the present, Grosser refers to the philos- ophy of Hannah Arendt. Bibliography Abensour, Miguel. Max Blechman and Martin Breaugh.
Cambridge, UK: Polity, Agamben, Giorgio. Daniel Heller-Roazen. Stanford: Stanford University Press, Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy, ed. Althusser, Louis. Need an account? Click here to sign up. Download Free PDF. Russell Fox. A short summary of this paper. Review of "Radical Democracy and Political Theology". Don't have an account? Sign in via your Institution Sign in. Purchase Subscription prices and ordering for this journal Short-term Access To purchase short term access, please sign in to your Oxford Academic account above.
This article is also available for rental through DeepDyve. View Metrics. Email alerts Article activity alert. Advance article alerts. New issue alert. Receive exclusive offers and updates from Oxford Academic. Related articles in Google Scholar. Citing articles via Google Scholar. This approach has profound implications not only for the nature of contemporary religious belief and practice but also for the reconceptualization of the proper relationship between religion and politics.
Challenging the modern, liberal, and secular assumption of a neutral public space, Robbins conceives of a postsecular politics for contemporary society that inextricably links religion to the political. While effectively recasting the tradition of radical theology as a political theology, this book also develops a comprehensive critique of the political theology bequeathed by Carl Schmitt.
It marks an original and visionary achievement by the scholar the Journal of the American Academy of Religion hailed "one of the best commentators on religion and postmodernism.
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