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Category: Critical Theory for Political Theology 3.0

Between Two Theologies: Bensaïd’s Sovereignty

Bensaïd critiques political theology while defending Derridean sovereignty—itself theological—and the distance between the two theologies is short.

Why the Obsession?

“Neither of us would be allowed to do our jobs had we adhered to our practice of wearing a veil.”

Memory, Obligation, and the Illiberal Jew

“Balthaser’s history is a helpful necessity. Without it the obligation has no shape, no lineage, no proof of its own non-marginality. But memory cannot be the ground of the obligation, only its occasion.”

Glissant on Religion: A Conversation

Reading Glissant is important because he not only asks us to think about political life in terms of public speech and activity, he also reminds us always to situate that politics within the landscape and the seascape.

Daniel Bensaïd and the Islamic Headscarf Controversy

As an indicator of national frustrations, the headscarf crystallizes the collective hysteria of a declining power that clings to its dreams and its extinct splendor.

Freedom of Religion, the American Way

I will explore the covenantal relationship between statehood and religion and its implications for freedom of religion for religious institutions unaffiliated with white Christian Nationalism.

On the Necessary Revolutionary Slowness

In an era of shrinking democratic space, Bensaïd’s prophetic pathos cuts through both quietism and theatrical revolt, demanding a radicalism patient enough to build and urgent enough to act.

The Montage of Privation: Islam and the Architecture of Sinicization in China

Islam in China is going through a period of architectural amputation called Sinicization. The result is a haunting landscape where dome-less and minaret-less mosques visualize deficiency as a definition of what it means to be Muslim in China today.

In Manifold (Marian) Witness

Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones responds to the book forum on her newly published, Immaculate Misconceptions.

Exonerating Marxism: Sacrifice without Telos

Benjamin devises a pure sacrificial ethos, devoid of the profanities of teleology. Benjamin’s account of sacrifice is saturated with emancipatory sacred dispositions.

Religion and Public Life

Luke Roberts introduces the essays in the symposium on Religion and Public Life.