xbn .

Essays

The Pope Who Refuses to Play Our Game

Progressive Catholic commentators persistently interpret Pope Leo XIV as a character in America’s resistance to Donald Trump. His July 4 visit to Lampedusa implies that he is conveying a significantly larger narrative.

Who is Responsible for Death?

If you call someone to turn back to dust, you must prepare to be called upon in return.

Technocracy, Political Theology, and Democratic Threat

The presence of technological elites in the Vatican at the release of Magnfica Humanitas indicates a shift in perspective concerning democracy. Put bluntly, it is not just human labor that is at stake; democracy hangs in the balance.

To Build Jerusalem

Davidson’s Saving Utopia narrates the decline and renews the call for utopic vision, but, if we forget the imbrication of heaven with hell—of utopia with dystopia—we will be doomed to repeat it.

Caesar’s Economy or God’s?

The economy of Spirit, like God’s polity, is countercultural. The way out of the trap of living within the lie that the world is defined by boundaries shaped by tyranny and obedience to it, is to tell the truth that life demands freedom and creativity, valuing relationships over material things.

What Pope Leo’s ‘Call to Disarmament’ Means for Dialogue, Just War Theory—and Possibly LGBTQ+ Issues

Pope Leo’s call for disarmament goes so far as to claim that Catholic teaching on just war theory is outdated and needs to be replaced by dialogue and diplomacy. Could the same be said for Catholic teachings on sex and gender?

Spectacle Capitalism and Dazzling Theory

Tonda’s book bears many fruits, but vernacular religion might reveal a different spiritual drama at work in late capitalism than the one the book provocatively stages.

Do We “Miss” God?

A Christianity fashioned in the image of white national belonging cannot hold the fullness of the church.

Angels and Demons and the US Military (Oh My!)

What if life was so confusing and so difficult because we stand at the center of some cosmic conspiracy that divides every aspect of reality into theological categories of good and evil?

Where Does Race End and Theology Begin?

Biko Mandela Gray talks about race, radicalism, and religion, and Assata Shakur, with Atiya Husain

PTNCON27: Call for Seminar Streams

The Political Theology Network is hosting our sixth in-person conference, which will be held in Nashville, TN, from April 29 to May 2, 2027. Would you like to coordinate a thematic stream?

You Must Change Your Life: On Moving Saints

We asked Aaron Hollander and Sonia Velázquez to reflect on each other’s recent books. Here, Hollander explores the intersection of hagiography, aesthetics, and politics.