Introduction: The Varieties of Political Theology

For almost a century, scholars have employed political theology as a framework to examine sovereignty and pluralism, the opposing poles of political association. This work has responded directly to twentieth and twenty- first century phenomena, such as the Weimar Republic, fascism, and liberal globalization. At the same time, however, political theology has reached back to early modernity as its source and touchstone. The early modern rise of the nation- state, and with it, the development of global empires, raised new questions regarding the nature of sovereignty. Additionally, the Reformation and the subsequent mixing of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and others in these nation- states and empires, raised new questions about pluralism and the relationship of individual subjects to one another and to the state. The recent reemergence of political theology as a vital element of political, legal, and social theory has thus necessarily entailed a turn, if only selectively, back to certain key figures of early modernity. Reciprocally, early modernists, especially literary scholars, have replied with a corresponding surge of interest in both twentieth- century work on political theology and, inevitably, the early modern texts that inspired it. This transhistorical and interdisciplinary cross- pollination has demonstrated the enduring relevance of early modernity to twenty- first- century debates. It has also shown in a broader sense, moreover, how the humanities—not just the social sciences—retain a key role in interpreting modern political life.

The essays in this special issue draw on this recent work by theorists and early modernists in order to flesh out further possibilities for what political theology might yet be. What, for example, does political theology have to teach us about political betrayal? What is the relationship of temporality to the exercise of sovereignty? And how does political theology relate to gender, sexual violence, and race? In taking up such issues, these essays share a project of illustrating how political theology may point not only toward dictatorship and enmity, but pluralism and freedom. In offering fresh perspectives, these essays demonstrate the need for further research on the ways in which modernity emerges in no small part from past theologies, as well as the need for further thought on how, and in what manner, the theological perspective continues to be a powerful lens for viewing the problems of our own time.

Brief History of Political Theology

The modern study of political theology stems from the early and mid- twentieth- century work of Carl Schmitt and his various interlocutors, such as Walter Benjamin, Ernst Kantorowicz, Leo Strauss, and Hans Blumenberg. Schmitt claimed that political thought was merely a secularization of theological concepts. On the basis of this insight, his work grimly insisted on extra- legal sovereignty and its accompanying friend/enemy divide as the price of politics. As early as the 1930s, both historicist and theoretical scholarship began to push back against Schmitt's arguments, but his influence nonetheless managed to connect political theology closely with dictatorship, totalitarianism, and anti- Semitism. Moreover, Schmitt's work on figures like Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes persuasively linked early modern theories of sovereignty with these darker elements of the twentieth century.

Following a gap of some decades, political theology took on a new and varied life in the late twentieth century. After the end of the Cold War, theorists like Giorgio Agamben, Paul Kahn, Chantal Mouffe, and Eric Santner utilized political theology to criticize liberal globalization, and to explore the role of sovereignty in the new world order. For them, sovereignty was simultaneously an explanation for the disturbing violence that survived in liberal nation- states, and a means of transcending liberal biopolitics and legalism in the interest of freedom and constituent power. William Cavanaugh's skepticism about religious violence raises similar problems in the modern nation- state, although his work evinces a second impetus for the return to political theology as well: it encapsulates a resurgent awareness of the public relevance of religion in the wake of events such as the rise of the religious right in the United States and 9/11. These changing assumptions vis- à- vis the place of religion [End Page 2...