"When one man believes in something unproven (or does not exist), it is delusion. When many people believe in it, it is religion."
But regardless of whether you believe in a greater deity or not, the fact that political theology is reasserting itself again is a fact we cannot deny.
Just when we thought we have moved out of the dark ages of religious warfare and political control because of divine right into the enlightened era when God (and its accompanying acts of irrationality by men who profess divine guidance) has been removed from the public and political sphere, we find ourselves coming back full circle.
It is undeniable that religion and faith is an intrinsic part of the human existence. We have always depended on the "existence" of a greater being to explain things beyond our understanding and will continue to do so. And hence, no matter how much we wish otherwise, political theology will always exist.
The only question is to what degree and damage.
In the light of all that has happened in recent years, Mark Lilla has written a very interesting and timely essay (based on his upcoming book, "The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics and the Modern West") that tries to shed light on this resurgent phenomena.
When 9/11 happened, it was convenient to explain it by using convenient catchphrase like "They hate our freedom", etc. etc.
But what liberal democracy failed to realise and understand is that Islam and the Islamic world operates on a completely different system of logic and rationale. The act of those hijackers and Al-Qaeda cannot just be diluted to poverty, oppression and opposition to American foreign policy. Yes, they may contribute to some of the reasons, but it is way too simplistic to believe that it's only that.
In "The Politics of God", Mark tries to remind us all that almost everyone in the world is a part of that same tradition. And it is to our detriment if we ignore it or fail to understand and engage it in its own language.
We should also not make the mistake of thinking that this is only an issue with the Islamic world. As we sit and ponder, Christian political theology is making its presence strongly felt in the US. While here at home, we have people of "influence" using Christianity and the bible as justification to pursue a certain agenda and shape policies that affect the shared public sphere.
And lest we be mistaken, this is not only confined to the two great monotheistic faiths of Christianity and Islam. For example, we see it resurging in India through the pantheistic Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party.
There is no way for us to ignore it and wish it away. In the whole history of mankind, 99% of it has seen religion (and the belief in god's divine revelation as a way to live our life) intertwined with politics in a way that affects both the public as well as private individual sphere. It is only in recent history that man has somewhat successfully (depends on how you see it) separate religion from politics.
To assume that we are successful and that's the way things are going to be from now on is plain folly.
After all, we are atavistic creatures who often depend on the divine when we exhaust our intellectual cache.
The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (by Mark Lilla)
Editorial Reviews - From Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. This searching history of western thinking about the relationship between religion and politics was inspired not by 9/11, but by Nazi Germany, where, says University of Chicago professor Lilla (The Reckless Mind), politics and religion were horrifyingly intertwined. To explain the emergence of Nazism's political theology, Lilla reaches back to the early modern era, when thinkers like Locke and Hume began to suggest that religion and politics should be separate enterprises. Some theorists, convinced that Christianity bred violence, argued that government must be totally detached from religion. Others, who believed that rightly practiced religion could contribute to modern life, promoted a liberal theology, which sought to articulate Christianity and Judaism in the idiom of reason. (Lilla's reading of liberal Jewish thinker Hermann Cohen is especially arresting.) Liberal theologians, Lilla says, credulously assumed human society was progressive and never dreamed that fanaticism could capture the imaginations of modern people-assumptions that were proven wrong by Hitler. If Lilla castigates liberal theology for its naïveté, he also praises America and Western Europe for simultaneously separating religion from politics, creating space for religion, and staving off sectarian violence and theocracy. Lilla's work, which will influence discussions of politics and theology for the next generation, makes clear how remarkable an accomplishment that is. (Sept. 14)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Editorial Reviews - From Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. This searching history of western thinking about the relationship between religion and politics was inspired not by 9/11, but by Nazi Germany, where, says University of Chicago professor Lilla (The Reckless Mind), politics and religion were horrifyingly intertwined. To explain the emergence of Nazism's political theology, Lilla reaches back to the early modern era, when thinkers like Locke and Hume began to suggest that religion and politics should be separate enterprises. Some theorists, convinced that Christianity bred violence, argued that government must be totally detached from religion. Others, who believed that rightly practiced religion could contribute to modern life, promoted a liberal theology, which sought to articulate Christianity and Judaism in the idiom of reason. (Lilla's reading of liberal Jewish thinker Hermann Cohen is especially arresting.) Liberal theologians, Lilla says, credulously assumed human society was progressive and never dreamed that fanaticism could capture the imaginations of modern people-assumptions that were proven wrong by Hitler. If Lilla castigates liberal theology for its naïveté, he also praises America and Western Europe for simultaneously separating religion from politics, creating space for religion, and staving off sectarian violence and theocracy. Lilla's work, which will influence discussions of politics and theology for the next generation, makes clear how remarkable an accomplishment that is. (Sept. 14)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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