scholarly journals A Turn to Liturgy in Contemporary Political Theology

MELINTAS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-257
Author(s):  
Willy Gaut
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Vita Activa ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
The Church

Contemporary development of Christian political theology has been marked, among others, by a turn to liturgy. At first glance, such a turn might be easily associated with the sound principle of the inextricable connection between vita activa and vita contemplativa. The turn to liturgy, therefore, aims to affirm that mystics (the life of prayer) and politics (social engagement) should go hand in hand. However, does this classical idea stand as the sole reason for the turn to liturgy in the contemporary discussion in political theology? In this article, the author argues that while this classical argument still provides part of the answer to that question, the turn to liturgy in contemporary political theology to a considerable extent deals with the question of self-definition of the Church in exercising its political engagement. The turn to liturgy insists that the Church is inherently political, and thus its political significance is not defined by its relationship with the politics of the state alone. On the contrary, the political nature of the Church and its political role wells up from its identity as the sign and instrument of the Kingdom of God. As such, in its political engagement, the Church ought not to be considered merely as a social or voluntary organization.

The Political Theory of the Disruption

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Laski
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Principles ◽  
The Church

“Of political principles,” says a distinguished authority, “whether they be those of order or of freedom, we must seek in religious and quasi-theological writings for the highest and most notable expressions.” No one, in truth, will deny the accuracy of this claim for those ages before the Reformation transferred the centre of political authority from church to state. What is too rarely realised is the modernism of those writings in all save form. Just as the medieval state had to fight hard for relief from ecclesiastical trammels, so does its modern exclusiveness throw the burden of a kindred struggle upon its erstwhile rival. The church, intelligibly enough, is compelled to seek the protection of its liberties lest it become no more than the religious department of an otherwise secular society. The main problem, in fact, for the political theorist is still that which lies at the root of medieval conflict. What is the definition of sovereignty? Shall the nature and personality of those groups of which the state is so formidably one be regarded as in its gift to define? Can the state tolerate alongside itself churches which avow themselves societates perfectae, claiming exemption from its jurisdiction even when, as often enough, they traverse the field over which it ploughs? Is the state but one of many, or are those many but parts of itself, the one?

‘Ask, and it will be Given …’ Toward Writing the History of a Logion

1989 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Goldsmith
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS: We have attempted to indicate that the ask-logion of Matthew 7. 7a, 8a is an independent saying (probably of Jesus himself) which originally called for or described a response within the context of the earliest, eschatological preaching of the Kingdom of God. The uncontrolled and volatile possibilities inherent in this independent saying led the church to begin a process of ‘definition’ of the saying. In this process the context in which the saying is found changes and often its form undergoes changes in order to bring the saying within the church's understanding of what was possible and permissible. The pressures of the ecclesiastical and the eschatological ethical traditions are both present in the Matthean version. A very sketchy suggestion (arising from our study) for the plotting of this development is offered in the accompanying diagram.

scholarly journals Political Theology as Theodicy: The Holy Spirit’s Performance in the Economy of Redemption

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-219
Author(s):  
Martin Grassi
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Political Performance ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Relationship

Although Political Theology examined mainly the political dimension of the relationship between God-Father and God-Son, it is paramount to consider the political performance of the Holy Spirit in the Economy of Redemption. The Holy Spirit has been characterized as the binding cause and the principle of relationality both referring to God’s inner life and to God’s relationship with His creatures. As the personalization of relationality, the Holy Spirit performs a unique task: to bring together what is apart by means of organisation. This power of the Spirit to turn a plurality into a unity is manifested in the Latin translation of oikonomía as disposition, that is, giving a special order to the multiple elements within a certain totality. Within this activity of the Spirit, Theodicy can be regarded as the way to depict God’s arrangement of the world and of history, bringing everything together towards the eschatological Kingdom of God. The paper aims at showing this fundamental activity of the Holy Spirit in Christian Theology, and intends to pose the question on how to think on a theology beyond theodicy, that is, how to think on a Trinitarian God beyond the categories of sovereignty and totalization.

scholarly journals Golem i Lewiatan. Judaistyczne źródła teologii politycznej Thomasa Hobbesa

Politeja ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2(59)) ◽  
pp. 207-232
Author(s):  
Tomasz Tulejski ◽  
Arnold Zawadzki
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The State ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Church

Golem and Leviathan: Judaic Sources of Thomas Hobbes’s Political Theology In the article, the Authors point out that Hobbes’s political philosophy (and in fact theology) in the heterodox layer is inspired not only by Judeo-Christianity, but also by rabbinic Judaism. According to them, only adopting such a Judaic and in a sense syncretistic perspective enabled Hobbes to come to such radical conclusions, hostile towards the Catholic and Calvinist conceptions of the state and the Church. In their argument they focused on three elements that are most important for Hobbesian concept of sovereignty: the covenant between YHWH and the Chosen People, the concept of the Kingdom of God, salvation and the afterlife, and the concept of a messiah.

scholarly journals Doing Science in Futureless Times. War, Political Engagement, and National Mission in Croatian Ethnology during the 1990s

Südosteuropa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-49
Author(s):  
Agustín Cosovschi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Previous Decade ◽  
Social Marginality

Abstract From a perspective rooted in intellectual and cultural history, the author accounts for the profound disciplinary transformations undergone by ethnology as practised at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research (IEF) in Zagreb, Croatia, during the early 1990s. In a context shaped by the Yugoslav breakup and the outbreak of war, and also as a result of theoretical transformations that had taken place in Croatian ethnology during the previous decade, many researchers at this institute undertook a new ethnological practice that involved among other things the questioning of the notion of objectivity and the redefinition of the political role of the ethnologist. The author analyses these changes in terms of converging factors, namely the theoretical influences coming from American, French, and German scholarship, the disciplinary crisis caused by a self-perception of social marginality, and the radical and violent sociopolitical transformations of the early 1990s.

The Idea of a Political Theology, I.

Worldview ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-7
Author(s):  
J. Bryan Hehir
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Modem World ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

There is a dimension of Catholic thought rooted in the Vatican Council that extends beyond it in a way that could have significant implications for the Church's role in the political order. The basis for a political theology lies in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modem World; the purpose of this document was to reformulate the perspective in which the Church understood and evaluated contemporary culture and defined her rote in it. Many observers have singled out this document as the one with the greatest potential for shaping the long-range development of the Catholic Church.

Religio-Political Nexus and Political Imaginary in Russia

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-139
Author(s):  
Yulia Prozorova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Imaginary ◽  
The Church ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Constitutive Element ◽  
Religious Worldviews

The essay contributes to the discussion of the religio-political nexus by examining the interplay between the religious and the political and the dynamics of political imaginary evoked by the Christianization and reception of Christian political theology in Russia. After a cursory overview of theoretical foundations underpinning the religio-political problematic, the essay introduces political theology as a constitutive element of the religio-political nexus and its most emphatic forms of theocracy and sacral rulership. Political theology sheds light on the gravitation between the religious and the political and the meta-institutional potential of the religio-political nexus. The essay focuses on the creative appropriation of religious themes by political imaginary contributing to the institution of autocracy in Russia. Christian monotheism and religious worldviews along with Byzantine political theology introduced theocratic vision and comprised the conceptual-symbolic framework within which autocratic configuration of power was articulated and legitimized. The increasing dependence of the church on the secular authority and reinterpreta­tion of the doctrine of symphonia resulted into the caesaropapism associated with absolute autocracy. ‘Monistic unity’, unification of all powers subjugated and embodied by a sacralised autocratic ruler evolved in Russia as a paradigmatic pattern with long-lasting effects.

scholarly journals Basis-teoretiese perspektiewe op dissipelskap en die verhouding tot gemeentebou

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karel P. Steyn
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Church ◽  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Underlying Principle ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Changing Times ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church

Basis-theoretical perspectives on discipleship and its relation towards congregation building. In recent times there has been a growing focus on the process of building up the local church in the Reformed Churches of South Africa. Congregation building should not only take place through growing numbers, but also through spiritual growth. In this article a few basis-theoretical perspectives will be explored through a study of applicable literature, regarding the definition of ‘disciple’ and ’discipleship’. It is also the purpose of this article to establish whether or not there is any relation between discipleship and congregation building. It is the premise of this article that discipleship, with the basis-theoretical perspectives in mind, can suffice as a ministry model towards congregation building for the church in the ever so changing times in which she finds herself when the kingdom of God is taken as the goal of discipleship, and love for God and your neighbour is taken as the underlying principle of discipleship.

Athanasius' ‘Vita Antonii’ as Political Theology: The Call of Heavenly Citizenship

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
SOPHIE CARTWRIGHT
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
World Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Kingdom Of Heaven ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Fallen World

This article explores the political theology of Athanasius' ‘Life of Antony’. It argues that the work is profoundly concerned with the relationship between the Church and the empire, which it treats as a component of the relationship between the Church and the fallen world order. Athanasius explores this issue through Antony, striving to live as a citizen of heaven within the fallen world. Athanasius sees allegiance to earthly authority as problematising allegiance to the heavenly kingdom, which is bound up with a concern for the Christian's identity: the Christian must understand himself and the world in relation to the kingdom of heaven, rather than the earthly kingdom.

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