Violence, Entitlement, and Politics: A Theology on Transforming the Subject

151 Pages·2021·2.663 MB·English

by  Steven G. Ogden

Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology
and Biblical Studies
VIOLENCE, ENTITLEMENT,
AND POLITICS
A THEOLOGY ON TRANSFORMING THE SUBJECT
Steven G. Ogden
Violence, Entitlement, and Politics
This book is an exercise in political theology, exploring the problem of gender-
based violence by focusing on violent male subjects and the issue of entitlement.
It addresses gender-based violence in familial and military settings before
engaging with a wider political context. The chapters draw on sources ranging
from Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Étienne Balibar to Rowan Williams
and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. Entitlement is theorized and interpreted as a
gender pattern, predisposing subjects towards controlling behaviour and/or
violent actions. Steven Ogden develops a theology of transformation, stressing
immanence. He examines entitled subjects, predisposed to violence, where
transformation requires a limit-experience that wrenches the subject from itself.
The book then reflects on today’s pervasive strongman politics, where political
rationalities foster proprietorial thinking and entitlement gender patterns, and
how theology is called to develop counter-discourses and counter-practices.
Steven G. Ogden is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Public and Contextual
Theology at Charles Sturt University, Australia. He is interested in politics and
religion, as well as issues around gender, power, and violence. Previous pub-
lications include The Church, Authority, and Foucault: Imagining the Church
as an Open Space of Freedom (2017).
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Violence, Entitlement, and
Politics
A Theology on Transforming
the Subject
Steven G. Ogden
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Steven G. Ogden
The right of Steven G. Ogden to be identified as authors of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ogden, Steven G., 1955- author.
Title: Violence, entitlement, and politics : a theology on transforming
the subject / Steven Ogden.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Routledge new critical thinking in religion, theology and
biblical studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021015062 (print) | LCCN 2021015063 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367221515 (hbk) | ISBN 9781032076638 (pbk) | ISBN
9780429273520 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Violence‐‐Religious aspects‐‐Christianity. | Political
theology. | Women‐‐Violence against. | Men‐‐Psychology. |
Entitlement attitudes.
Classification: LCC BT736.15 .O33 2022 (print) | LCC BT736.15
(ebook) | DDC 261.8/3‐‐dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015062
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015063
ISBN: 978-0-367-22151-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-07663-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-27352-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429273520
Typeset in Sabon
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Reference works vii
1 The problem of gender-based violence 1
2 Violence, entitlement, and politics 22
3 The significance of entitlement 46
4 Foucault, confession, and transformation 70
5 A theology of transformation 92
6 Transforming violent subjects 110
7 6 January: An epiphany of entitlement 131
Index 136
Acknowledgements
With this project, I am grateful for the feedback and support of many
people.
In 2017, I participated in a three-day training course on family violence
with DV Connect in Brisbane. I was inspired by a group of counsellors,
psychologists, and social workers, many of whom work fulltime in the field.
They underlined the problem and the prevalence of entitlement.
I have had conversations with colleagues in The Australasian Society for
Continental Philosophy and The Foucault Circle. In 2018, I presented a
paper on one-punch attacks at the meeting of The Foucault Circle in
Cleveland, Ohio, the ensuing discussion was very helpful.
Since then, I have received important feedback from Lynne Huffer,
Wendyl Luna, Dianna Taylor, and Miguel Vatter. Thanks to Routledge,
I have also received two very helpful anonymous reviews.
I am grateful for the financial assistance I received from The Centre for
Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University. The Centre’s
Director Stephen Pickard and Communications Officer Jonathan Cole have
been supportive of my work, from the start.
I have had many conversations with Clare O’Farrell, Duncan Reid,
Phillip Tolliday, and the indefatigable Lee Parker. Their time, interest,
advice, and wisdom have been priceless.
Behind the scenes, Anne’s goodwill, wisdom, and generosity of spirit have
made this project possible.
Reference works
CRFD Collins Robert French Dictionary
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
SOED Shorter Oxford English Dictionary

1 The problem of gender-based
violence
What was he thinking?
In the front bar of a hotel, a man begins jostling his friends. Inevitably, the
scuffling escalates into a brawl as they stumble out of the hotel onto the
street. Without warning, the man takes a swipe at a teenager passing by.
With full force, he hits the unprotected jaw of the young man, who col-
lapses immediately. As the teenager strikes the pavement, the assailant runs
away leaving the teenager to die in the gutter. In the meantime, bystanders
try to save the young man’s life, but it is too late. On that day, images of his
body flood the internet. In days to come, hundreds of strangers bring floral
tributes, placing them in the gutter where the body once lay.
I am interested in the problem of violence, specifically gender-based
violence, and the possibility of transforming violent subjects. This street-
side incident then raises many issues. This type of incident is commonly
referred to as a one-punch attack. It is “a type of violence reflective of a
much broader sociocultural milieu” (Asher, Halsey, and Lee 2016: 191).
Nevertheless, my focus is on the perpetrator. Why did he do it? What was
he thinking? Was he thinking at all? Moreover, the incident is a reminder of
the prevalence of male violence, which is associated with a sense of enti-
tlement, where the perpetrator “declares his own state of exception” (Mann
2014: 212). Of course, there are legitimate entitlements (legal, political). In
everyday life, moreover, there is a reasonable level of entitlement.1
However, there is also an excessive level of entitlement, which predisposes
some men towards controlling behaviour and violent actions.
Certainly, the problem of male violence is bigger than a street-side incident,
but it is nonetheless, symptomatic of a type of thinking or pre-thinking, which
is a factor in the production of violence. So, how do we transform violent
subjects? Broadly, this question can be tackled at two levels of analysis, which
are the personal (micro) and the cultural (macro). At the personal level of
analysis, there is something tangible here that hones critical analysis. In other
words, understanding violent subjects helps to identify the formative factors
as “every form of individuality is a social determination” (Butler 2010: 166).
At the cultural level of analysis, however, there are factors that influence the
DOI: 10.4324/9780429273520-1