religions Editorial
Introduction to Political Theology: The Next Generation Emin Poljarevic Department of Theology, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden; emin.poljarevic@teol.uu.se
Citation: Poljarevic, Emin. 2023. Introduction to Political Theology: The Next Generation. Religions 14: 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel14010009 Received: 6 December 2022 Revised: 10 December 2022 Accepted: 14 December 2022 Published: 21 December 2022
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© 2022 by the author.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
The onset of the 2020s has presented humanity with a multitude of global predicaments. Some are marked by ethical, ideological, socio-political, and economic instabilities; others are viewed as threats (e.g., pandemics, climate and water crises, the rise of antiglobalization, nationalist, and nativist movements), with some even considered “elevated” threats (e.g., large-scale wars between dominant and emerging military powers). On a societal level, we have seen an ever-increasing number of people becoming “unsettled”, physically, morally, and ethically. This is perhaps a byproduct of what has sometimes been described as “liquid modernity” (Bauman 2000). These and other expanding threats seem ubiquitous, having, for the most part, revealed the inadequacies of such traditional solutions, including democratic deliberations, wide-scale public reasoning, the balance of power and deterrence, large-scale transnational negotiations between/among sovereign nations and transnational organizations, and signing treaties and cooperation deals. Modernization, which includes a range of secularization processes worldwide, seems incapable of fulfilling some of its (intended) core missions, such as establishing the contents of human moral progress and emancipation from inauthentic ways of life. If we were to allow ourselves to perceive this gloomy picture as being pregnant with a novel set of imaginaries and political opportunities, we could also allow some liberties in presenting how they can be understood from a variety of perspectives. The wide lens of political theology can provide a range of imaginaries that could help us consider and perhaps even start to, at least theoretically, resolve some of these emergencies – on global, regional, and local levels. The aim is to review the span of a range of political theological imaginaries, some of which could even help us incorporate theories of authenticity, highlight the human potential to do “good,” and offer insights in how to sustain life on Earth as we know it. The effort here is directed toward developing potentialities for large-scale justice, freedom, and other values with a place in the ultimate horizon of human life. This proverbial horizon stretches beyond our time and space, and, perhaps, transcends human life’s physical components. In this Anthropocene epoch and its postsecular and, arguably, postliberal moment, humanity is engaged in discussing (co)existential possibilities and alternative modes of political life, perhaps even radical modes of political life centered on potentialities and deliberations of how to live well together with people with whom we may disagree (Arendt 1994). The Abrahamic religious and other traditions have the potential to offer thoughtprovoking departure points in this regard. Their interpreters can pontetially offer an exploration of the contents and consequences of the ultimate horizon of the human life. For instance, which political theologies rooted in these and other religious traditions propose alternative critical imaginaries and political opportunities for an authentic and sustainable future? Assume, for a moment, that these traditions could enable us to imagine politics as a secondary or even a penultimate activity, an undertaking that calls for critical analyses that traverse beyond (neo)liberal and secularist conceptions of politics and economics. Some consider these to be the only horizons through which humans find purpose and meaning; others disagree (Hallaq 2019). Such arguments, however (un)convincingly outlined, are too fatalistic in light of the many bubbling imaginaries within and beyond the Abrahamic faith traditions (De Vries
Religions 2023, 14, 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010009
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions