Power as a Zero-Sum Game: The Politics of John 8:31-36
In contemporary Western society we like to pride ourselves on having done away with what we would term ‘archaic’ systems, such as slavery. And so, when we hear such a system mentioned or even alluded...
View ArticleThe Rules of (Non) Engagement — Marie Alford-Harkey
Last week, before Sandy became the focus of everyone’s attention here on the East Coast, I sent what felt like a pretty risky email to the adult members of my family back in Georgia (all four of them)....
View ArticleExpecting Justice: The Politics of Jeremiah 33:14-16
It is a challenge to reflect on politics and advent together. As advent emerges and we begin to anticipate the emergence of God’s presence into the world anew, as we expect the child who taught peace...
View ArticleDemocracy and the debt crisis – why political theology needs to wake up from...
Now that America’s fiscal cliff has been averted, the press and public attention are turning quickly to the next looming “crisis” – the debt ceiling. For many of today’s liberals, the debt ceiling...
View ArticleIs God a Socialist? The Politics of 1 Cor. 12:12-31a and Luke 4:14-21
Is God a Socialist? And if so, what kind of socialism does God espouse?
View ArticlePolitics of Epiphany
Herod was scared of a newborn baby. This basic fact of the Epiphany story bears the key to understanding its political implications. Herod’s fear reveals something of the anxiety that accompanies...
View ArticleLuke 13:31-35 – The Politics of Place
And so it is to Jerusalem that Jesus must go. Why Jerusalem? How would the scene have played out differently if the Pharisees, in their plotting, had simply arranged to have Jesus murdered on the road...
View ArticleProper Reverence for Political Authority
In a recent piece about Les Misérables, which is in general a fine study of the dynamics of law and grace in the film, Michael W. Hannon worries that a view of the state, and the political realm more...
View ArticleDemocratic revolutions and gun rights – forging a more global perspective on...
Everyone is familliar with Mao Tse-Tung’s famous dictum, first formulated during the Long March in the 1930s, that “all power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” The saying often has gushily romantic...
View ArticleThe Politics of Luke 8:26-39
“Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear.” (Luke 8:37a) Fear plagues us. Like children convinced there are...
View ArticleBook Review – Clayton Crockett, Deleuze Beyond Badiou
Clayton Crockett’s Deleuze Beyond Badiou is more than a commentary on Badiou’s reading of Deleuze or a defense of Deleuze. It is, rather, a transdisciplinary work that crosses the domains of theology,...
View ArticleBook Preview: A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature by Anthony Paul Smith
[Anthony Paul Smith, La Salle University, previews his new book, A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature: Ecologies of Thought (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).] I have a bad habit of making intellectual work...
View ArticleLuther, Lacan, and the Heart of Human Destiny – What Psychoanalysis Can Tell...
Herman Westerink. The Heart of Man’s Destiny: Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Early Reformation Thought. New York: Routledge, 2012. 161 pages. The question of the modern has always been a political one. We...
View ArticlePolitics of God’s Time (Luke 13:10-17)
Recently I had the privilege of dining with several incoming college freshman as they arrived at Vanderbilt’s campus in the heart of the American South for the first time. One of the students...
View ArticleExpecting Justice: The Politics of Jeremiah 33:14-16
It is a challenge to reflect on politics and advent together. As advent emerges and we begin to anticipate the emergence of God’s presence into the world anew, as we expect the child who taught peace...
View ArticleDemocracy and the debt crisis – why political theology needs to wake up from...
Now that America’s fiscal cliff has been averted, the press and public attention are turning quickly to the next looming “crisis” – the debt ceiling. For many of today’s liberals, the debt ceiling...
View ArticleThe Cloister and the Chamber: In search of Australian political philosophy...
For decades now, we seem to have been living in “end”: the end of history, the end of ideology, the end of theory. Parties nominally of the left (“New Labour”, “Wall St Democrats”) joined those of the...
View Article“Mad As Hell” Politics and Income Inequality – The Elite Don’t Get It
The political narrative du jour in America is that the upcoming Presidential election is some sly, apocalyptic fulfillment of the famous line from the 1976 Paddy Chayevsky movie Network: “”I’m as mad...
View ArticleCatholic Social Teaching: Pro-Establishment? (Matthew Shadle)
In his address to the United States Congress in September, Pope Francis said, “Politics is . . . an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good:...
View ArticleAnnouncement – Political Theology Today Now Has Facebook Discussion Group
The editors at PTT announce the creation of a new open discussion group for those who would like to talk about important issues of the day relating to the topic of political theology in general,...
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