Radical Democracy and Political Theology

221 Pages·2011·2.834 MB·English

by  Jeffrey W. Robbins

radical democracy and political theology
Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
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Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
Slavoj Žižek, Clayton Crockett, Creston Davis, Jeffrey W. Robbins, editors
The intersection of religion, politics, and culture is one of the most discussed
areas in theory today. It also has the deepest and most wide-ranging impact on
the world. Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture will
bring the tools of philosophy and critical theory to the political implications
of the religious turn. The series will address a range of religious traditions and
political viewpoints in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world.
Without advocating any specific religious or theological stance, the series aims
nonetheless to be faithful to the radical emancipatory potential of religion.
After the Death of God, John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, edited by Jeffrey
W. Robbins
The Politics of Postsecular Religion: Mourning Secular Futures, Ananda Abeysekara
Nietzsche and Levinas: “After the Death of a Certain God,” edited by Jill Stauffer
and Bettina Bergo
Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe, Mary-Jane
Rubenstein
Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of
Translation, Arvind Mandair
Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing: Dialectic, Destruction, Deconstruction, Catherine
Malabou
Anatheism: Returning to God After God, Richard Kearney
Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism, Clayton Crockett
Hegel and the Infinite: Religion, Politics, and Dialectic, edited by Slavoj Žižek,
Clayton Crockett, and Creston Davis
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r
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Jeffrey W. Robbins
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and political theology
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK
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Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2011 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Robbins, Jeffrey W., 1972–
Radical democracy and political theology / Jeffrey W. Robbins.
p. cm. — (Insurrections)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-15637-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-52713-2
(ebook)
1. Democracy—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Death of God
theology—Political aspects. 3. Political theology. 4. Schmitt, Carl,
1888–1985. I. Title.
BR115.P7R69 2011
261.7—dc22
2010031360
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-
free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that
may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
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For Charlie and Rose-Marie
(and their Baba)
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
part one  Radical Democracy 17
chapter one  Democracy, More or Less 19
interlude  Managing Democracy Abroad 50
chapter two  Democracy, Radically Conceived 57
part two  Political Theology 75
chapter three  Political Theology and the Postsecular 77
interlude  The Iranian Revolution Redux 98
chapter four  Political Theology, Beyond Despair 106
chapter five  Political Theologies, or Finding 128
an Alternative to Schmitt
chapter six  The Theopolitics of Democracy 155
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s
t
n
e
t
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c interlude  The Messianic as a Democratic 173
Political Theology
conclusion  From the One to the Many 180
Notes 193
Index 207
viii
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Acknowledgments
A book is a life unto itself. At least so it seems to me as I near the end
of this particular book’s own life process. It has seemed to take a life-
time to produce. But as I now have the time to reflect on when it ac-
tually began and how it eventually took shape, it has really only been
a few short years, five at the most. But while I was writing it, Charlie
and Rose-Marie were born, and everything that came before seems
to be absolutely from another life and another time. And so it is that
this book is for them, for without them it would have been a different
book by a different author altogether. Their lives have been this proj-
ect’s primary distraction but also, as any parent will understand, its
greatest urgency. With babies in the house, time is always of the es-
sence. Because of Charlie and Rose-Marie, I’ve become conscious of
time like never before: time to eat, time to play, time to wash, change
diapers, eat some more, and play some more. But never enough time
to sleep. And no time to think. No time to read (unless one counts
Clifford, Froggie, Curious George, et al.). And no time to write.
Which is why in addition to Charlie and Rose-Marie, this book is
also dedicated to Barbara, their grandmother and my mother-in-law,
without whom this book could have never been completed. It would
have lived its life instead as merely an idea in my head. So thank you
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s Barbara for making Charlie and Rose-Marie’s life your own, so that I
t
n
e could have enough life of my own to complete this work. In my mind
m
it is a book for them, although I realize that they may never them-
g
d selves read it. But it is for them nonetheless, because it is about our
e
wl world, which will all too soon become theirs.
o
Despite the largely optimistic tone that this book strikes with re-
n
k
c gard to democracy as the immanent political power proper to human-
a
ity as such, that my children will inherit our world remains for me
a foreboding thought. And just as they have radically disrupted the
natural flow of my own life process, my hope for this book is that it
will do the same. While it pertains to political philosophy and demo-
cratic theory, it is not being offered up as a comprehensive theory
of governance but instead as a critical intervention. It is meant as
an interruption, a singling out of an alternative way of conceiving
political power and practice, a coming to terms with the power and
possibilities that we have. It is theological because it is a grappling
with supreme power. And it is radical because it locates that power
not in some transcendent, other-worldly realm but in us, with us, and
for us. When in the midst of escalating violence and national mourn-
ing Abraham Lincoln spoke of democracy as a government “of the
people, by the people, and for the people,” this was a radical confes-
sion of faith, and its theopolitical implications are yet to be told. This
book is therefore an attempt at getting that story started.
Telling this new story, instead of the same old story, requires new
concepts and new theoretical arrangements. It was my teacher, the
late Charles Winquist, who first taught me that. And it is with Clay-
ton Crockett, another of Winquist’s students, with whom I have had
the benefit of pursuing this task together. Clayton has been a con-
stant conversation partner with me as this project has unfolded. And
indeed, it was upon his invitation to contribute to his edited volume,
Religion and Violence in the Secular World: Towards a New Political Theol-
ogy, that the original idea for this book was born. Soon after I com-
pleted my chapter for that book, Professor Gerritt Neven invited me
to speak at the Netherlands School of Advanced Studies in Religion
and Theology at the Kampen Theological University. I presented a
sketch of this book’s outline there and received excellent feedback,
especially from Renée van Riessen, with whom I have not spoken
since but for which I remain grateful.
In addition to this formative moment, I was able to present por-
tions of this book at various international conferences and public fo-
x
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