Table Of ContentPast and Present Political Theology
This book demonstrates how discussions of Political Theology have been a
constant feature throughout philosophical modernity and that they continue
to impact contemporary political debates. By tracing the historical roots and
detailing the contemporary outworking of Political Theology in Europe, it
contends that this growing field requires a broader “canon” in order for it
to mature.
Political Theology is shown here to be about the diversity of relationships
between religious beliefs and political orientations. First engaging with
historical debates, chapters re-examine the relationship between personal
conviction and societal orientation on such topics as the will to believe, evil,
individualism, the relationship between church and state, and the relationship
between belief and natural science. The volume then establishes the relevance
of these debates for the present day. As such, it invites engagement on the
back and forth between religion and politics in a liberal democracy and a
communist state, on how communitarianism relates to religious language,
on the diversity of Christian and Jewish political theology and the politics
of toleration.
By broadening out the field of Political Theology this book offers the
reader a more nuanced understanding of its sustained influence on public
life. As such it will be of interest to academics working in Political Theology,
but also Theology, Philosophy and Political Science more generally.
Dennis Vanden Auweele is Lecturer in Philosophy at the Higher Institute of
Philosophy, KU Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium).
Miklós Vassányi is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies
at Károli University of the Reformed Church, Hungary.
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Past and Present Political Theology
Expanding the Canon
Edited by Dennis Vanden Auweele and Miklós Vassányi
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
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Past and Present Political
Theology
Expanding the Canon
Edited by Dennis Vanden Auweele
and Miklós Vassányi
First published 2020
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Dennis Vanden Auweele and
Miklós Vassányi; individual chapters, the contributors
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identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
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ISBN: 978-0-367-40755-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-80890-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Péter Losonczi (1970–2015),
dearly missed colleague and friend
Contents
List of contributors ix
Introduction 1
DENNIS VANDEN AUWEELE AND MIKLÓS VASSÁNYI
1 Kepler, the supra-confessional Lutheran 11
MIKLÓS VASSÁNYI
2 The subject’s perspective in Leibniz’s philosophy 35
DÁNIEL SCHMAL
3 From a pagan theologia civilis in Rome to a fictitious
political theology in Kant: epochal metamorphoses
of a theological underlay of political thought 58
MARTIN MOORS
4 On evil and political theology: reflections on
Kant and after 76
WILLIAM DESMOND
5 The political theology of witnessing: the Canaanite
woman and Kierkegaard’s tax-collector 94
ORSOLYA HORVÁTH
6 The politics of religious commitment: pascal
and Dostoevsky 111
DENNIS VANDEN AUWEELE AND HANNA VANDENBUSSCHE
7 The East-West divide in the European Union and
its overcoming 126
BALÁZS M. MEZEI
viii Contents
8 Spiritual communism: the career of a theory from Saint
Augustine to MacIntyre 142
GÁBOR KENDEFFY
9 Dispositives of political theology: analyzing non-discursive
elements of the Josephinian dispositive of pastoral power 154
MICHAEL HOELZL
10 Theological motives in Hannah Arendt’s thought 176
CSABA OLAY
11 A political theology “of Doubtful Solidity”: Leo Strauss on
Rousseau via Spinoza 185
GÁBOR BOROS
12 Religious moral languages, secularity and hermeneutical
injustice 199
GORAZD ANDREJČ
13 “State-persecution” in the works of Raffaele Pettazzoni:
a religious history 217
VALERIO SEVERINO
14 Christ versus the Llama sacrifice: Rodolfo Kusch’s
theological criticism of the colonization of Latin America 229
PÉTER SZAKÁCS
15 Religious atheism: assessing political religion through
Critchley’s Faith of the Faithless 242
DENNIS VANDEN AUWEELE
Index 255
Contributors
Gorazd Andrejč - RU Groningen (Netherlands)
Gábor Boros - Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hun-
gary (Budapest)
William Desmond - KU Leuven (Belgium), Villanovu University (USA) and
Maynooth University (Ireland)
Michael Hoelzl - University of Manchester
Orsolya Horváth - Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in
Hungary (Budapest)
Gábor Kendeffy - Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in
Hungary (Budapest)
Balázs M. Mezei - Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Budapest)
Martin Moors - KU Leuven (Belgium)
Csaba Olay- Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest)
Valerio Severino - Università degli Studi “La Sapienza” di Roma (Italy)
Dániel Schmal - Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Budapest)
Péter Szakács - Babes¸-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
Hanna Vandenbussche - Independent scholar
Dennis Vanden Auweele - KU Leuven (Belgium)
Miklós Vassányi - Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in
Hungary (Budapest)
