Theological-Political Turn

Nyhet

A Critique

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

989 kr

Kommande

In recent years numerous authors have claimed that underneath everything political there lies something religious – an underground religious substance, as it were. These religious elements, it is said, are the essence of political phenomena and the driving force of their history. Even in our modern "secularized" politics, the heart of the matter, it is alleged, is religious, just as it was in the past. This fashion for the theological-political can be observed in the most varied trends in contemporary philosophy, from the work of Giorgio Agamben and Charles Taylor to that of Richard Rorty and Jürgen Habermas.In Géraldine Muhlmann's view, this "theological-political" idea is a sham. It sheds no light on the factors that underlie key political developments, such as the crisis of liberal democracies and the rise of authoritarianism. It has nothing to say about the concrete ways in which religious points of reference, when they do exist, are used to wage war or to make politics. It contributes nothing to reflection on political matters and it leads us astray by failing to attend to their specific, complex and intertwined logics.So what accounts for the rise of theological-political thought? Muhlmann argues that its popularity has less to do with a genuine attempt to understand politics and more to do with a desire by philosophers to demonstrate their ability to grasp the substantial basis of politics and the true direction of political history. In other words, the triumph of the theological-political is a philosophical hubris – and a dangerous one at that.This ambitious inquiry into the rise of a troubling philosophical zeitgeist will be of great interest to students and scholars in philosophy, political theory and religious studies and to anyone interested in the ideas that are shaping our world today.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-08-14
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor272
Upplaga26001
FörlagPolity Press
ISBN9781509567317
ÖversättareBrown, Andrew

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Filosofiska discipliner inom Filosofi och religion

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionThe end of previous warnings against the philosophy of history, a philosophy that claims to reach a "total" point of viewMuch more than a simple "interest" in religion"Politics" has exited religion, but "the" political has not - or so they say...Theoretical forcingsA phoney zeitgeist A philosophical break: the end of the Machiavellian-Spinozan protective dam of the 1960s-1980s1. The sirens of "historical substantialism": a new wave of the "secularization theorem" (Hans Blumenberg)Blumenberg's insightsAnd yet, a singular "Carl Schmitt seduction" emerged towards the end of the 1980s, and proved to be enduringIn the current wave, we find a much more total version of the "secularization theorem" than in Schmitt The ultimate resource for political modernity, if we are to avoid despairIn the current wave, religious substance has many different faces (all foreign to Schmitt)2. The hyper-romantic line, the apocalyptic-messianic line, and the old-Hegelian line The hyper-romantic line (Rorty). The shadow of the later BergsonThe apocalyptic-messianic line (Agamben). The later Heidegger as a tutelary figureThe old Hegelian line (Taylor, Habermas). The later Hegel rides again3. Passers-on and go-betweensProblematic "passers-on": Jaspers, Taubes, VoegelinComplex "go-betweens": Vattimo, Gauchet4. The history-solutionNot "God", but "religion"Philosophies of history always evoke a religious attitude, but they invent something else in relation to religious thoughtThe challenge of the history-solution, so well identified by Leo StraussWhy "religion"?5. Farewell to the safeguards of the "Marx-Freud-Nietzsche" period and of the social sciencesAn "innocent" historico-genealogismThe plague-bearersCausally simplistic, dogmatically continuist: Durkheim is Bergsonized and Max Weber has disappearedd6. The circumvention of the most acute problems posed by totalitarianism. And... the pits: Agamben's "reconstruction" of AuschwitzThe issue of totalitarianism is omnipresent in the current theological-political waveTotalitarianism as a "substitute religion"? - A debate on this has already taken place, although it seems to have been "forgotten"The problem of the theological-political smoothing of all kinds of political regimes in Western historyTotalitarianism from the theological-political point of view: at last, the liquidation of politics? The forcing of reality to validate the theological-political logic: Agamben and Auschwitz7. Philosophical exhaustion and the desire to absorb evilAn attraction to the sacred develops, but is obliged to respect the ban on religious thought The sidestep towards the "history of the relationship to the sacred", and the opportune encounter with the desire for the history-solutionAfter "religious philosophy", the "philosophy of religion" - or the "forgotten" temptationPower through dispossessionConclusion: For critiqueNotesIndex