Politisk teologi vs. Teologisk politik

Det som dessvärre kommit att reduceras till en teologisk subdisciplin; politisk teologi, tycks glädjande nog vara populärare än någonsin. Detta nyvaknade intresse för vad som ibland även kallas public theology, skall kanske ses en motreaktion mot den privatisering som präglat kristen tro under moderniteten. En privatisering som ofta uppehållt sig vid, och begränsat sig till, den egna bortomjordiska frälsningen.

Det som kommit att kallas politisk teologi borde väl egentligen kallas teologisk politik. Detta då all teologi som inte väljer att underkasta sig den trötta uppdelningen mellan andligt och världsligt, är politisk. I Sverige har Arne Rasmusson, bland annat genom sin lysande avhandling The Church As Polis: From Political Theology to Theological Politics As Exemplified by Jurgen Moltmann and Stanley Hauerwas", kritiserat de upplysningsliberala antaganden som ligger till grund för en modernistisk politisk teologi.

Gemensamt för flera av de nya böckerna som kommit i ämnet är en kaxigare och mer distinkt kristet teologiskt perspektiv, som utan att för den sakens faller för den konstantinska frestelsen.

Här följer två nya spännande böcker, och en antologi om teologisk politik:

A Theology of Public Life - Charles T. Mathewes
"This ground-breaking book defends and details Christian believers' engagement in contemporary pluralistic public life not from the perspective of some neutral ‘public’, but from the particular perspective of Christian faith, arguing that such engagement enriches both public life and Christian citizens' faith themselves."

Theology, Political Theory, And Pluralism Beyond Tolerance And Difference - Kristen Deede Johnson
"Tolerance has been the bedrock of political liberalism, while proponents of agonistic political thought and radical democracy have sought an answer that allows a deeper celebration of difference. Kristen Deede Johnson describes the move from tolerance to difference, and the accompanying move from epistemology to ontology, within recent political theory. Building on this ‘ontological turn’, in search of a theological answer to the question, she puts Augustine into conversation with recent political theorists and theologians. This theological option enables the Church to envision a way to engage with contemporary political society without losing its own embodied story and practices. It contributes to our broader political imagination by offering a picture of rich engagement between the many different particularities that constitute a pluralist society. "

Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World - Lawrence Sullivan
"What has happened to religion in its present manifestations? In recent years, Enlightenment secularization, as it appeared in the global spread of political structures that relegate the sacred to a private sphere, seems suddenly to have foundered. Unexpectedly, it has discovered its own parochialism—has discovered, indeed, that secularization may never have taken place at all."