Assessment

Preparatory Texts and Preparation: 25% / Final Paper (5,000 words): 75%. Full attendance is required for all sessions, and assigned readings are to be completed before each session. Participants are required to furnish a short participator text for discussion at each session (no more than 900 words). A final paper is to be submitted to the Faculty Office on an agreed topic which will be no more than 5,000 words, and which should follow strictly the standard presentation guidelines.

Module Aims

Aims:
Our historical era is ripe with questions that have led to a sustained exploration on the interaction of the theological and the political. Of these questions, this module takes the perspective of Christian theology, understood as an inquiry by Christian theologians of the political, where the political is demarcated broadly to include the various ways in which humans order common social life. In particular, it will look to those inquiries that have shaped the current field of study, including the mid-twentieth century developments, social engagements and later re-imaginings. It will also consider several significant geo-political challenges. Students will be required to undertake close reading of primary texts, supported by secondary reading.

Indicative Syllabus:

This course will explore

• Sources: European Political Theology after World War II; Liberation Theologies, including its Black, Feminist and Post-colonial forms; Public Theology in United States
• Engagement and Critique: Catholic Social Teaching; Post-liberalism and Radical Orthodoxy
• Issues: Liberalism and Democracy, Capitalism and Global Economics, Religion as a Threat
• The End(s) of Political Theology: Good Rule, Eschatology and the Apocalyptic

Bibliography

• — Hovey, Craig, and Elizabeth Philips, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Christian Political Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• — Scott Peter, and William T. Cavanaugh, eds. The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology. Chichester: Wiley Publishers, 2019.
• — De Vries, Hent, and Lawrence E. Sullivan, eds. Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World. New York: Fordham University Press, 2006.