Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum! On the Indispensable Pitfalls in the Piecemeal Engineering of Peace

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-238
Author(s):  
Walther Ch. Zimmerli
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Second Best ◽  
Philosophical Contribution

The relation between peace-oriented politics and theology will be discussed from a philosophical point of view by approaching the problem in five steps. In a first step, I will focus on logic as one of the most powerful and simultaneously misleading forces in our thinking. Utilising the results of this step will, secondly, enable a clarification of the misunderstanding implied in an idea such as eternal peace. Thirdly, the article will unveil the paradoxical character of violence inherent in the notion of political power as well as the antinomy of war and peace. This will open the space for accepting second-best solutions. In so doing at least some of the problems implied in any philosophical contribution to a political theology of pacifism may be solved.

scholarly journals A New Temporality of Religion

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 193-204
Author(s):  
Lenart Škof
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Ethical Point ◽  
The Future ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Prophetic Religion ◽  
Cornel West

In his insightful essay »Prophetic Religion and the Future of Capitalist Civilization« Cornel West fervently addressed a question of our abilities to imagine a more empathetic, more compassionate, and also more hospitable world, in which we could foresee, or perhaps already lay ground for a future community where the word religion would simply mean that we live our lives in the consciousness of our finitude and thus in an existential and cognitive humility. This kind of religion (not far from Dewey’s or Rorty’s ideals) would enable us to see beyond the margins of any narrow-minded religious ideology or any violent incarnation of religion. Based on these initial thoughts, we first wish to discuss two basic concepts of contemporary political theology – community and vulnerability. We shall argue that we need to offer in contemporary political theology a basic ethico-democratic response, infused with our imaginative capacity for remembrance (Benjamin, Metz) and future hope (West, Dewey, Unger). We will argue with Unger (The Religion of the Future) that we need to live through accepting an enhanced vulnerability, being shared in our democratic (and) religious communities. From this view any loss of human life and its potentials is a sign of a grave injustice, and a catastrophe from an ethical point of view. Finally, we will propose the so called reverse thesis on religion – namely that today, perhaps, we should first look at religion in its radicalized ethico-political form which only later enables us to think about its various variations and incarnations within different traditions and cultures. We will argue that it is within this newly acquired temporality of religion and its inherent ontologico-political paradox, that it is possible to imagine a future place where recurrent hope for a life is reborn and nurtured within future pluralistic / inclusivistic / democratic / post-Christian communities, based on compassion and shared vulnerability, and not any more on power, or any other form of violence.

Death, doubt, truth and charisma: Exhumations, enigmas and manipulations surrounding the deaths of Salvador Allende and Eduardo Frei Montalva

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-312
Author(s):  
Alfredo Joignant ◽  
Mauro Basaure ◽  
Manuel Gárate
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Salvador Allende ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Forensic Investigations ◽  
Do So ◽  
Sociological Concept

This essay explores what has been an undertheorized link between forensic investigations and the sociological concept of charisma. To do so, we examine the deaths of two illustrious men: former Chilean presidents Salvador Allende and Eduardo Frei Montalva. Our interest is not to elucidate the causes of their deaths from a medical or legal point of view, but rather to understand what is constitutive of the investiture of political power. Based on the notion of charisma and the sentiments produced by forensic investigations, this article explores those non-visible elements that emanate from charisma as a concept, vested in the dead leaders’ remains.

scholarly journals HEINRICH MEIER E LA SFIDA DELLA TEOLOGIA POLITICA

Il Politico ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-116
Author(s):  
Marco Menon
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
The Core ◽  
Political Problem

This paper offers a short overview of Heinrich Meier’s books on Carl Schmitt’s political theology, namely Carl Schmitt und Leo Strauss, and Die Lehre Carl Schmitts. These writings, published respectively in 1988 and 1994, and recently translated into Italian by Cantagalli (Siena), have raised both enthusiastical appraisal and fierce criticism. The gist of Meier’s interpretation is the following: the core of Schmitt’s thought is his Christian faith. Schmitt’s political doctrine must be unterstood as political theology, that is, as a political doctrine which claims to be grounded on divine revelation. The fundamental attitude of the political theologian, therefore, is pious obedience to God’s unfathomable will. The hypothesis of the paper is that Meier’s reading, which from a historical point of view might appear as highly controversial, is essentially the attempt to articulate the fundamental alternative between political theology and political philosophy. Meier’s alleged stylization of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss is a form of “platonism”, i.e., a theoretical purification aimed at a clear formulation of what he means by “the theologico-political problem”.

scholarly journals Philology as an Experience of Reading

2021 ◽  
pp. 80-104
Author(s):  
Vitalij Makhlin
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Concrete Experience

The article is an attempt to understand and evaluate Sergey Bocharov’s critical activities and heritage from the point of view of some contemporary problems in human and philological studies. What was and comparatively is quite original in Bocharov’s articles and books, it is, I believe, his approach to a literary text, beginning with his early little book about Tolstoy’s «War and Peace», where this scholar tried to combine his research with his concrete experience of a «common reader». This approach, it seems, allowed him to avoid the two extremes in recent literary studies, namely, abstract theoretism, on one hand, and abstract positivism, on the other. In this sense, Bocharov’s heritage may help us today to return to some «pre-scientific», but scholarly forms of textual analysis in philology based on the reading experience itself.

scholarly journals Theological foundations of the political power ontology

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (S1) ◽  
pp. 488-495
Author(s):  
Mikhail Dmitrievich Schelkunov ◽  
Olga Olegovna Volchkova ◽  
Anton Sergeevich Krasnov
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Applied Aspect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theological Foundations ◽  
Points Of View

The article is devoted to the study of the normative and theological foundations of political power origin and belongs to the field of political theology research. Despite the narrow field of research, the work is devoted to the study of a separate aspect of social life as a whole. The study of the theological foundations of political power was carried out within the framework of the neoinstitutional methodological paradigm, taking into account the data of hermeneutic analysis, which is an applied aspect of the work. Political power is considered by the authors in the framework of a broader aspect - the ontology of the social, as part of the fundamental layer of being. The authors, within the framework of the theological paradigm, considered the main ontological concepts of the political, analyzed the correlation of key political concepts - "power", "authority", and "sovereign". Various positions on understanding the essence of political power, as well as on the origin of this phenomenon in the historical and theological key are considered, the points of view of both domestic and foreign experts are studied.

scholarly journals Bahasa Al Quran dalam Perspektif Politik Kekuasaan

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Muradi
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
Interesting Part ◽  
Relationship Of

<p>An interesting part of Quranic studies is sosio-culture of its Quran language.   It becomes notice when Arabic language was chosen as Koran language. The point of view of this study is the political power of Quraisy when Quraisy holding the power in Hijaz territory. The question is: What is the reason of Arabic language (Quraisy language) chosen as Koran language? Is there any relationship between Quraisy and political power Arabic language being chosen as Koran language?</p> <p>Seeing in the historical aspect, the northern Arabic language being survive because is supported by political aspect and arabization. Based on the interaction of Arabic language (Quraisy) standard language (<em>fusha</em>) was appearing. Quraisy political system, although not reflects absolute power that forced another ethnic group, there is a relationship of power factor and why Arabic language chosen as Quran language.</p>

scholarly journals ‘ALI ‘ABD AL-RAZIQ AS FIRST SECULARIST THINKER IN ISLAM

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
N. V. Yefremova
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The World ◽  
Famous Book ◽  
Prophetic Mission

The article deals with one of the most outstanding representatives of Muslim modernism but still has not been thoroughly studied in our country, Egyptian theologian ‘Ali ‘Abdarraziq (1888–1966), the author of a famous book ‘Islam and the Foundations of Political Power’ (1925).The second part of the article analyses ‘Abdarraziq’s depoliticization of religion, his critics of the basic problems of traditional political theology of Islam: the conception of the Prophet Muhammad as a king in addition to his prophetic mission, the sacred necessity of the caliphate, the world Islamic government, etc.

Speculating about Diogenes of Apollonia

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Laks
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Philosophical Contribution

This article takes up Diogenes again, investigating some of the reasons Diogenes has been unappreciated, and making a case for Diogenes' mind-based teleology as a significant philosophical contribution. The sophists, too, have suffered from the charge, which goes back to Plato, of not being “real” philosophers. Diogenes did not bother himself with, or was not interested in, showing in what sense the world is organized in the best possible manner; this looked to him as something that happened as a matter of course. What did interest him, on the other hand, was to show what the thing that exercised intelligence is. From this point of view, the emphasis is definitely not on teleology, but rather on noetics. Here, primary textual evidence is available, for the fragments, as well as Simplicius's presentation of them, definitely support the view that the point of Diogenes' argumentation was to show that intelligence is air's.

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