Readings in Political Theology

3 Credits.

Secularization theory has entrenched itself in our usual theorizing about the state, naturalizing the separation of religion and state and consigning religion to the private. However, as writings on political theology (theory, commentary, ethnography) show, such a separation doesn’t hold in actuality. The religious makes its presence known through notions such as the Church eternal, the king’s mystical body, the theological underpinnings of concepts of the political, the incitement of revelation, the mythological underpinnings of authority and so on. This course will delve into these readings so as to grow our attentiveness towards these aspects of power and governance as well as to understand their presence within the everyday.