Critique of Political Theology: Ancient Texts, Contemporary Readings

The seminar examines the intersection of the theological and the political through critical readings of ancient canonical texts considered foundational for Western philosophy, Judaism, and Christianity. Texts from Anaximander, Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, Aristotle, the Pentateuch, and Paul’s Epistles will be read alongside 20th-century thinkers — Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Rancière, Pierre Clastres, David Graeber, Regina Schwartz, Jan Assmann, Judith Butler, and Bonnie Honig. Can the reading of ancient texts be non-anachronistic and critical? Can the political be separated from the theological? Are the ancient formations of theo-political imagination still with us today? What can they teach us about ours?