Radical Democracy and Political Theology

Jeffrey Robbins

Published by Columbia University Press 2011

Radical Democracy and Political Theology

Jeffrey Robbins

In the series Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture

https://doi.org/10.7312/robb15637

Overview
Contents

About this book

Alexis de Tocqueville once wrote that "the people reign over the American political world like God over the universe," unwittingly casting democracy as the political instantiation of the death of God. According to Jeffrey W. Robbins, Tocqueville's assessment remains an apt observation of modern democratic power, which does not rest with a centralized sovereign authority but operates as a diffuse social force. By linking radical democratic theory to a contemporary fascination with political theology, Robbins envisions the modern experience of democracy as a social, cultural, and political force transforming the nature of sovereign power and political authority.

Alexis de Tocqueville once wrote that "the people reign over the American political world like God over the universe," unwittingly casting democracy as the political instantiation of the death of God. According to Jeffrey W. Robbins, Tocqueville's assessment remains an apt observation of modern democratic power, which does not rest with a sovereign authority but operates as a diffuse social force. By linking radical democratic theory to a contemporary fascination with political theology, Robbins envisions the modern experience of democracy as a social, cultural, and political force transforming the nature of sovereign power and political authority.

Robbins joins his work with Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's radical conception of "network power," as well as Sheldon Wolin's notion of "fugitive democracy," to fashion a political theology that captures modern democracy's social and cultural torment. This approach has profound implications not only for the nature of contemporary religious belief and practice but also for the reconceptualization of the proper relationship between religion and politics. Challenging the modern, liberal, and secular assumption of a neutral public space, Robbins conceives of a postsecular politics for contemporary society that inextricably links religion to the political.

While effectively recasting the tradition of radical theology as a political theology, this book also develops a comprehensive critique of the political theology bequeathed by Carl Schmitt. It marks an original and visionary achievement by the scholar the Journal of the American Academy of Religion hailed "one of the best commentators on religion and postmodernism."

Author / Editor information

is professor and chair of religion and philosophy at Lebanon Valley College. He is the author of Between Faith and Thought: An Essay on the Ontotheological Condition and In Search of a Non-Dogmatic Theology, the editor of After the Death of God, coeditor of The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken, and associate editor of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory.

Reviews

David McKenzie:
The work is an extremely interesting synthesis of current scholarship on political theology and radical democracy,

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One. Radical Democracy
1. Democracy, More Or Less Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
Interlude. Managing Democracy Abroad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
2. Democracy, Radically Conceived Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
Part Two. Political Theology
3. Political Theology and the Postsecular Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Interlude. The Iranian Revolution Redux Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
4. Political Theology, Beyond Despair Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
5. Political Theologies, or Finding an Alternative to Schmitt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
6. The Theopolitics of Democracy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Conclusion. From the One to the Many Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 232

eBook

Published: April 6, 2011
ISBN: 9780231527132