Political Theology – Ancient and Modern

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Level: 
Master's
CEU credits: 
2
Academic year: 
2009/2010
Academic year: 
2010/2011
Semester: 
Fall
Start and end dates: 
4 Sep 2009
Co-hosting Unit(s) [if applicable]: 
Department of History
Department of Medieval Studies
Stream/Track/Specialization/Core Area: 
Culture, Religion and Intellectual History in a Comparative Perspective
CEU Instructor(s): 
Matthias Riedl
CEU Instructor(s): 
György Geréby
Learning Outcomes: 
The students will be familiarized foundational texts as well as with the political and theological vocabulary of the Christian tradition. They will acquire a better ability to understand modern political terminologies by learning about their historical origins. They gain the historical knowledge that is necessary to understand present-day church-state relations in different parts of Europe.
Assessment : 
1. A final paper of 3000 words to be submitted by December 20th. The paper should refer to the whole reader but focus on certain time periods or topics according to individual interest. (50 %) 2. Class journals: weekly one-page-protocols of the class discussion to be submitted 48 hours before the next class. (25 %) 3. Participation: contribution to class discussion and voluntary presentations of readings. (25 %)
Full description: 

Carl Schmitt’s “Political Theology” is one of the most influential works of the 20th century. Its basic claim is: “All significant concept of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts”. On a truly global scale, it influenced theory, terminology and methodology of the social sciences and historiography. The course will evaluate the concept, its explanatory value, its validity and applicability.

However, Carl Schmitt was by no means the first theorist to apply the term political theology. Already in antiquity it formed part of the Hellenist tripartite theology (besides natural theology and mythical theology). Polybius and Panaitios defined it as a type of theology that serves the interest of politicians. More generally, it could be understood as a theology which is constitutive for a given political order.

Via Stoicism the concept of political theology was transmitted to the Church Fathers. While Roman thinkers such as Varro, Cicero, and Seneca insisted on the necessity of political theology to maintain public order, Tertullian, Lactantius, and Augustine refuted political theology and contrasted it with their new concept of a Christian “true religion” and “true theology”, based on revelation. This radical opposition of politics and truth, however, was not shared by all Christian theologians of the time, especially not in the East of the Empire. Imperial theology (Eusebius of Caesarea) became one of the intellectual pillars of the Byzantine Empire.

In other words, the basic question is if a political theology can legitimately be based on the Christian creed. This question has remained with Christianity in East and West ever since. It is a key question in Machiavelli’s Discourses just as much as in Roussau’s Social Contract. Finally, it underlies famous debate between Erik Peterson and Carl Schmitt, who in their turn, refer back to the theological debates of late antiquity. This recurring question of the compatibility (or the opposition) of Christian theology and political legitimacy will be one of the guiding questions of the course.

 

Introductory readings/Source collections:

Scott, Peter and William T. Cavanaugh, The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, Wiley: Blackwell, 2006.

Hoelzl, Michael and Graham Ward (eds.), Religion and Political Thought, London and New York: Continuum, 2006.

 

Schedule

Week 1: Introduction. Basic terms, ideas, problems

Readings: a) Geréby, György, “Carl Schmitt and Erik Peterson on the Problem of Political Theology. A footnote to Kantorowicz,” in: János M. Bak, Aziz al-Azmeh, eds., Monotheistic Kingship. The Medieval Variant, Budapest:CEU Press,2005,pp.31-61 [savepdf]

b) Riedl, Matthias, „Truth versus utility: The debate on civil religion in the Roman Empire of the 3rd and 4th century,“ in: John von Heyking/Ronald Weed: Civil Religion in Political Thought. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2010, pp.47-65. [savepdf]

 

Week 2: Political theology: the Hellenistic perspective on monarchy

Readings: a) Ps-Aristotle, On the Universe  [savepdf]

b) Dio Chrysostom : On kingship [savepdf]

 

Week 3: Monarchy: Jewish and Christian Perspectives. Terminology in the Bible: theocracy, lawgiving

Readings: a) Selections from the Old and New Testament [savepdf]

b) Josephus, Against Apion 2, 165 [savepdf]

c) Philo, On the creation of the world [savepdf]   

d) Gregory of Nazianzus, Theological orations (selections) [savepdf]

 

Week 4: Imperial Theology in Christianity. The vocation of the nations. History of salvation.

Readings: a) Paul of Tharsus, Letters (selections) [savepdf]

b) Origen, Contra Celsum (selections) [savepdf]

c) Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 10 [savepdf]

d) Eusebius of Caesarea, Oration in Praise of Constantine [savepdf]

 

Week 5: Anti-imperial theology

Readings: a) The Book of Daniel, ch.2 [savepdf]

b) The Passion of the Scillitan Martyrs [savepdf]

c) Epistle to Diognetus [savepdf]

d) Tertullian: Selections from Apologeticum and De pallio [savepdf]

 

Week 6: Civil religion versus religious truth

Readings: a) Polybius, Histories (selection from book 6) [savepdf]

b) Augustine, The City of God, Book VI [savepdf]

c) Augustine, The City of God, Book VII [savepdf]

d) Machiavelli, Discourses I,11-14 and III,1 [savepdf]

 

Week 7: Augustine: The church and the Kingdom of God. Eschatology.

Readings: a) Augustine, The City of God, Book XV [savepdf]

b) Augustine, The City of God, Book XIX [savepdf]

 

Week 8: Papal Government versus Universal Monarchy

Readings: a) Boniface, The Bull “Unam Sanctam” [savepdf]

b) Giles of Rome, On ecclesiastical power (selections) [savepdf]

c) Dante: Divine Comedy (selections); Monarchy (selections) [savepdf]

 

Week 9: Medieval Kingship

Readings: a) Anonymous, Norman Tracts [savepdf]

b) Anonymous, Before there were clerics [savepdf]

c) Kantorowicz: The King’s Two Bodies. A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 3-23 and 42-61. [savepdf]

d) Anastos, Milton, Aspects of the Mind of Byzantium, Ashgate, 2001. (Selections) http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/milton1_21.html

 

Week 10: Sovereignty

Readings: a) Carl Schmitt: Political Theology. Four chapters on the concept of sovereignty [savepdf]

b) De Maistre, Considerations on France (selections) [savepdf]

c) Bodin, Six Books on the Republic (selections) [savepdf] [savepdf]

d) Rousseau, The Social Contract, (selections) [savepdf]

 

Week 11: A Christian Political Theology? The Schmitt-Peterson Debate

Readings: a) Erik Peterson, Der Monotheismus als politisches Problem: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der politischen Theologie im Imperium Romanum, Leipzig: Jakob Hegner, 1935. [savepdf]

b) Michael J. Hollerich, Introduction to Monotheism as a Political Problem (draft – for course use only)

c) Carl Schmitt: Political Theology II [savepdf]

 

Week 12: Concluding Discussion

Readings a) Lefort, Claude: “The Permanence of the Theological-Political?”, in: Democracy and Political Theory. Translated by David Macey. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press 1988, pp.213-255. [savepdf]