Theo-Politics?

Markus Höfner is senior research associate at the Institute for Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion, Zürich University, Switzerland.

• Part OneChristianity, Politics, and Culture: A Complex Relation in Western and Asian Contexts1.Religion, Politics, and Sino-Christian TheologyChloë Starr 2.Yes! Intercultural Existence TodayVolker Küster3. Recent Male Circumcision Controversies, Barth, and Infant BaptismGrace Y. Kao4. Caesarean Section between High-Tech Medicine and a Theology of Birth: Developing an “Ethics of the Middle Range” Martin Wendte5.The Ecclesiological Implications of the Political Attitude of the Chinese Authority toward ChristianityKim-kwong Chan6.The Power of the Religio-Poietic Complex in Politics: Karl Barth’s Strategies against the Nation Becoming Religiously ChargedGünter ThomasPart TwoLegitimacy and Sovereignty: Political Power in Theological Perspective7.Constitutional Theology: Karl Barth and Carl Schmitt on Legitimacy and the Rule of Law Clifford B. Anderson8.A Tale of Two Sovereignties: Karl Barth and Carl Schmitt in DialogueDevin Singh9.The Political

May Karl Barth have something of value to say on theo-political themes today, more than half a century after his death, not just in the West, but also in Asia? The present volume provides robust, multifaceted and interdisciplinary answers to this question. Some of the authors point out Barth’s radical rejection of political ideologies and all forms of absolutizations, his emphasis on contingency and ambiguity in human affairs, or his denunciation of any withdrawal from the world. Others place his contribution in conversation with thinkers such as Carl Schmitt, Alexis de Tocqueville, or John Howard Yoder. Substantive theological conversations between Western and Asian scholars are urgently needed; this book is an excellent confirmation of the potential fruitfulness of such encounters