The Actuality of the Theologico-Political – Conference in London May 23-24, 2014

Today’s (post) political thought has been turned into an ethics and a legal philosophy. The business of politics is supposed to promote moral values and ethical policies which are reached either through a discursive will formation (human rights, humanitarianism, freedom etc.) or through the language of rights (original positions, striking a balance between individual rights and community goods, rights as trumps etc.).

Religion can help to revive the political, to re-politicize politics: it can help the construction of new political subjects who break out of the ethico-legal entanglement and ground a new collective space. In early Christianity, the communities of believers created the ecclesia, a new form of collectivity. Asimilar role was played in early Islam by the umma. Paraphrasing Kierkegaard, one can say that we need today the theologico-political suspension of the legal-ethical.

Speakers:

Tina Beattie – Conviction, Commitment and Law: religion outside the limits of reason alone
Enrique Dussel – Marx’s Critique: Turning Economics and Theology Back on their Feet 
Costas Douzinas – The Eternal Return of The Theologico-Political
Dominik Finkelde– Luther and Lacan
Boris Gunjevic – Theology As Spiritual Exercise – Discernment, Repetition, Discipline
Adam Kotsko – Political Theology From Below
James Martel –
John Milbank – Political Theology And Economic Theology: The New Debate
Eric Santner – The Weight Of All Flesh: On The Subject-Matter Of Political Economy
Rowan Williams – Representation: political problems and philosophical solutions?
Slavoj Zizek –“Se Conduire Comme Si Le Vieillard Existait”