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Whither Messianic Ethics?
Journal article

Whither Messianic Ethics?

Abstract

IN RECENT YEARS SEVERAL IMPORTANT PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES ON THE ethical and political character of Pauline messianism have been published by continental philosophers such as Alain Badiou, Stanislaus Breton, Jacob Taubes, and Giorgio Agamben. In contrast to the Weberian "secularization thesis," which interprets Paul's eschatological messianism as one of indifference to worldly conditions, these authors—more in keeping with Walter Benjamin and Karl Barth—interpret it as radically political: a challenge to conventional modern politics of human and especially national sovereignty. In this essay I bring these studies of Paul into conversation with recent critical discussions of Christian political theology to consider how messianic ethics may or may not be relevant to contemporary political theory, particularly in reformulating a "secularity" that neither excludes nor privileges particular religious voices and traditions.

Authors

Kroeker PT

Journal

Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 37–58

Publisher

Philosophy Documentation Center

Publication Date

January 1, 2005

DOI

10.5840/jsce20052524

ISSN

1540-7942

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