With Which Political Theology Are We Dealing? Reassessing the Genealogy of Political Theology and Looking Toward Its Future.

• Authors: Colby Dickinson

Title variants

PL

Z którą teologią polityczną mamy do czynienia? Oceniając genealogię teologii politycznej i wypatrując jej przyszłości

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this essay, I examine Michel Foucault’s political contrast between the theological domains of the pastoral and the mystical, in order to note his focus on how necessity and providence are founding and legitimizing concepts of the State. Through this process I develop an analysis of how Foucault, in his critique of the historical uses of theology as a tool of pastoral power, actually points toward another form of political theology than Carl Schmitt’s. My contention is that we begin to see another “type” of political theology appear in the writings of Giorgio Agamben, who follows Christian traditions much more closely than Foucault. The re-formulation of political theology within Agamben’s work, I argue, has tremendous significance for the field as a whole and is much in need of further elaboration, a task toward which this essay only points.

PL

W niniejszym tekście przyglądam się dostrzeżonemu przez Michela Foucaulta przeciwieństwu między teologicznymi obszarami władzy pastoralnej oraz mistycznej, by wskazać na nacisk, jaki filozof kładł na konieczność i opatrzność jako pojęcia założycielskie   i legitymizujące Państwo. Dzięki temu rozwijam analizę tego, jak Foucault, krytykując historyczne wykorzystania teologii w roli narzędzia władzy pastoralnej, faktycznie wskazuje na rodzaj teologii politycznej odmiennej od tej stworzonej przez Carla Schmitta. Twierdzę, że zaczynamy zauważać odmienny „typ” teologii politycznej w pismach Giorgia Agambena, który podąża za tradycjami chrześcijańskimi znacznie bardziej niż Foucault. Moim zdaniem przeformułowanie teologii politycznej w dziele Agambena ma kolosalne znaczenie dla całego pola badawczego jako całości i pilnie domaga się dalszego opracowania, na co niniejszy esej zaledwie wskazuje.

Keywords

EN

Michel Foucault; Giorgio Agamben; governmentality; pastoral; mystical; Michel Foucault; Giorgio Agamben; governmentality; pastoral; mystical

PL

Michel Foucault; Giorgio Agamben; rządomyślność; władza pastoralna; mistycyzm

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Praktyka Teoretyczna
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 3

Dates

published

2015-04-21

Contributors

author

Colby Dickinson

• Assistant Professor of Theology Loyola University Chicago Department of Theology Crown Center 313 1032 West Sheridan Road Chicago, IL 60660

References

• Adorno, Theodor W. 1973. Negative Dialectics. Trans. Ernst Basch Ashton. London: Continuum.
• Agamben, Giorgio. 1993. The Coming Community. Trans. Michael Hardt. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Agamben, Giorgio. 2000. “Absolute Immanence.” In Agamben, Giorgio. Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy. Trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Agamben, Giorgio. 2004. The Open: Man and Animal. Trans. Kevin Attell. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Agamben, Giorgio. 2005. The Time that Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans. Trans. Patricia Dailey. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Agamben, Giorgio. 2010. Nudities. Trans. David Kishik, Stefan Pedatella. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Agamben, Giorgio. 2011. The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government (Homo Sacer II, 2). Trans. Lorenzo Chiesa, Matteo Mandarini. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Agamben, Giorgio. 2013. The Highest Poverty: Monastic Rules and Form-of-Life. Trans. Adam Kotsko. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• duBois, Paige. 1991. Torture and Truth. New York: Routledge.
• Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power, ed. John B. Thompson. Trans. Matthew Adamson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Carrette, Jeremy R. 2000. Foucault and Religion: Spiritual Corporality and Political Spirituality. London: Routledge.
• Congar, Yves. 2011. True and False Reform in the Church. Trans. Paul Philibert. Collegeville: Liturgical Press.
• Critchley, Simon. 2012. The Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology. London: Verso.
• Crockett, Clayton. 2011. Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Derrida, Jacques. 2002. “Force of Law.” In Acts of Religion, ed. Gil Anidjar. Trans. Mary Quaintance. London: Routledge.
• Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage.
• Foucault, Michel. 2003. Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975, eds. Valerio Marchetti, Antonella Salomoni. Trans. Graham Burchell. New York: Picador.
• Foucault, Michel. 2005. The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1981–1982, ed. Frédéric Gros. Trans. Graham Burchell. New York: Picador.
• Foucault, Michel. 2007. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978, ed. Michel Senellart. Trans. Graham Burchell. New York: Picador.
• Foucault, Michel. 2011. The Courage of Truth: The Government of the Self and Others II: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983–1984, ed. Frédéric Gros. Trans. Graham Burchell. New York: Picador.
• Foucault, Michel. 2014. On the Government of the Living: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1979–1980, ed. Michel Senellart. Trans. Graham Burchell. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Kantorowicz, Ernst H. 1957. The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• MacKendrick, Karmen. 2013. Divine Enticement: Theological Seductions. New York: Fordham University Press.
• Moltmann, Jürgen. 1993. The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology. Trans. R. A. Wilson, John Bowden. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
• Schmitt, Carl. 2005. Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Trans. George Schwab. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Scott, Peter and William T. Cavanaugh. 2006. The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Žižek, Slavoj, Eric Santner and Kenneth Reinhard. 2005. The Neighbor: Three Inquiries in Political Theology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/prt.2015.3.7