The opening of the psalter: A study in Jewish Theology

A number of Jewish and Christian sources from Antiquity into the Middle Ages testify to a tradition which counts Psalms 1 and 2 as one unit or views them as belonging closely together. A few modern scholars have emphasized elements (of language and content) that connect Psalms 1 and 2, but the scholarly majority has understood these two psalms as having very different backgrounds. This article does not address the historical question of whether Psalms 1 and 2 are originally independent units. Rather, an attempt is made to bring out the thematic relationship between the texts, and to interpret Psalms 1 and 2 as forming a redactional introduction to the Psalter. The theological implications and the subtle interplay between different levels of time in both texts are explored, and a tentative dating within the Maccabean period is suggested. Psalms 1 and 2 may be understood as representing the zeal for the Mosaic tora and the eschatological Messianic expectations as two themes of major importance for understanding the Psalter.     

Political Theology as Liberative Theology

ABSTRACT

Challenging the widespread assumption that “political theology” as a discipline began with Carl Schmitt in the 20th century, this essay explores the biblical theme of God’s preferential option for the poor and oppressed first articulated as a modern political theology by Latin American theologians, but organically and independently manifest in US black liberation theology, and First World feminist theologies. At the heart of this movement is a commitment to speak truth to power at the risk of personal loss and even martyrdom.     

The Theology of Carl Schmitt's Political Theology

The theological turn in studies of Carl Schmitt is pronounced. This paper does not challenge this turn, but questions what theology means for Schmitt. Specifically, it challenges the assumption that Schmitt's political theology is grounded in divine revelation. By distinguishing between “theology in the sense of divine revelation” and “theology in the sense of epistemic faith,” it argues that Schmitt's political theology is epistemic in origin. Schmitt's political theology is not rooted in faith in divine revelation, but in the narrower notion that human cognition is, ultimately, rooted in faith not reason, revelation, or common sense.     

Theology and Democratic Futures

Abstract

The essays in this special issue of Political Theology engage in a vigorous and wide-ranging conversation between theology and theologically inspired forms of critical thought and the possible futures of democracy as an idea(l) and as a political practice. This collection seeks to provide some key coordinates for thinking through the linkages and disjunctures between the theological and the political in formulating new conceptual frameworks that obtain a critical purchase for understanding the multiple meanings of democracy in the (post)modern world. By posing the question, "What is the fate of theology in a post-theological moment?" this introductory essay focuses our attention on the contemporary configurations of intellectual and political power that animates so much of our discourse on the interrelationships between theology and politics and proceeds to provide a brief rehearsal of the essays included in this special issue.     

试论纳粹大屠杀及其对犹太民族和文明的影响

本文所说的纳粹大屠杀(Holocaust)特指希特勒法西斯对犹太人的杀戮。由于宗教、政治、经济、文化、社会等各方面的种种复杂原因及其互相交错,反犹思潮和行动早在公元前就已产生,在中世纪的欧洲更形成了系统的理论和有组织的行动。到了近代,一波接一波的反犹恶浪又在俄国和东欧肆逆,使犹太人“不仅遭到一个无权的民族所遭受的一般的经济和政治压迫,而且还遭到剥夺他们起码的公民权的压迫”。然而,与纳粹大屠杀相比,所有此前的反犹活动都显得相形见绌。     

Mansfield Park and Political Theology

ABSTRACT

This essay examines Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park in the light of classical understandings of political theology. It does so by placing the novel in its Anglican and Erastian contexts as well as by showing that it belongs to a lineage of English prose fiction, whose famous names are Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding, which also had theopolitical interests.     

Liberation Theology Undercover

In this article, I start from the claim that liberation theology's ultimate realization lies beyond the discipline and discourse of theology, in other spheres of knowledge and more practical domains of life. Through an elaboration of examples from diverse fields, such as urban planning and architecture, education, and health policy, I develop the concept of an “undercover liberation theologian” the theologian who leaves behind liberation theology's specific theological discourse to better infiltrate and colonize other disciplines through liberation theology's core concerns (the option for the poor and liberation). My aim with this exercise is to demonstrate how the task of the liberation theologian in the world can be extended beyond the theological, ecclesial, or pastoral domain, and how this requires a different model of future-oriented education for theologians.     

Jewish Republicanism

David Ben-Gurion is usually considered a labor leader or a Zionist national leader and is less remembered as a civilian head of state. Nevertheless, as premier of a fledgling state, he played a major role in shaping Israel's civil institutions and establishing democracy and the rule of law. This article seeks to show that Ben-Gurion's policy as a political leader was derived from a well-defined civic worldview encapsulated in the idea of “mamlakhtiyut.” Ben-Gurion understood “mamlakhtiyut” as an awareness of society's need to function as a civilized, independent polity manifesting civic responsibility and participation, respecting democracy, and upholding law and order. It is argued that Ben-Gurion's civic ideas can best be explained by the political theory known in the last 40 years as “republicanism.”     

Theology in Post-Democracy

Abstract

This essay confronts the problem of how theology is to respond to conditions of post-democracy in the United States. Building off the distinction between "politics" and "the political" in the work of Sheldon Wolin, this article asserts that his notion of "fugitive" democracy provides a useful tool to calibrate democratic engagement. The argument here identifies evangelicalism as the most historically relevant theological worldview for American politics. The analysis identifies three strands of evangelicalism: conservative, progressive and emergent. By tracing the theological foundations of each type of evangelicalism, this essay evaluates the capacity of each to speak to conditions of the fugitive in post-democracy