CARL SCHMITT AND POLITICAL THEOLOGY WITH RICHARD SUBWORTH

[Music] whether we know it or not I think lots of people particularly in Britain today are engaged in that squish this question of political theology if you have been reading these papers and being wondering what it means to be British and British identity if you've wondered what does it mean to hold together British society around this phrase called community cohesion then your part and parcel of a serious international debate about religious identity and unity how do we faithfully engage across traditions so that we actually have coherent society's solution for the church in its mission it's an issue for how we are understood how we make sense to each other as a great story told by Rowan Williams which I think encapsulate this issue of political theology he tells a tale of a Romanian government minister under the Ceausescu regime and a park or a notorious government minister and tells a story of her walking through Bucharest on a very sunny day with an umbrella and this umbrella wasn't there to protect herself from the Sun and she was questioned by a passerby why are you carrying an umbrella on this sunny day her reply was because it's raining in Moscow and it's a typically witty Rome Williams story that highlights two big questions religious people bring to the fore something of else where there is a view from elsewhere that they bring to present realities for Anna parkour it was muscovite communism dictating how she should live in Bucharest for Christians it's the world of the Bible and Christ's lordship the challenge of that story is actually how does our politics from elsewhere make a hiren sense in the world today for Anna Parker it was a parody it was something that was ludicrous and nonsensical for Christians some of our politics can be done in a way that doesn't make sense the question is how much translation should we do how do we stay faithful but stay a community that can contribute to the wider good this goes to the heart of political theology I got into this whole area in a very practical ministerial context involving Christian ministry I'm an ordained parish priest in a Muslim majority area what does it mean to be the church amongst a people where religion is political where religion is very public that's something that's integral to Muslim identity and as I explored this what does it mean to be a Christian and political because a key accusation to the Christian faith from Islam is that your religion is privatized it's just a Sunday right I then began to explore some of the key moves in at the end of the 20th century beginning the 21st century towards a political theology a rediscovery of ecclesial politics for me it's an area that is not just live for the church it's pressing particularly for the Western Church who are increasingly conscious of religious difference we're in an age that's post Christian but it's not secular yogoro Haber Mass would describe Western culture particularly Europe as post sec Killa Christianity has been a dominant framework in a country like Britain secularization and secularization thesis has had its day - but actually the reality is there are religious groups asserting difference and the big question is both how do we express ourselves in fully faithful ways across a community of difference but secondly how do we come together for the common good those are the two tensions that I see in that question of political theology and it's brought me to explore this unusual political theorist Carl Schmitt unusual and controversial because his ideas as a Nazi apologist actually a deeply repellant but he's put his finger on some key thinking that resonates with a recovery of Augustinian political theology a tradition political theology that seeks to explore politics present from within a framework of Christian mission and salvation history I'd like to introduce you to an infamous German political theorist of the 20th century Carl Schmitt as a springboard to talking about the discipline of political theology Schmitt was a professor at the University of Berlin during the Nazi period and an outspoken apologist for National Socialism his philosophy of law and the character of the state provided an ideological underpinning to Nazism and anti-semitism it seems strange to consider Schmidt's ideas with all their deeply repellent connotations for a timeline series on theology but his thinking is generated conversations that continue to this day amongst political theorists and theologians that have energy even into the 21st century to summer Smith's core ideas and questions and how they resonate with a wave of specifically political theologians that I shall be attend to cement has been described as the German Hobbs of the 20th century so Thomas Hobbes who wrote the classic Leviathan the first textbook of modern political theory during the 17th century was looking to give an account of a strong state that could hold together as he saw it the warring tendencies of a chaotic humanity Hobbes is probably best known in the popular imagination for the quote from his book Leviathan that life and its natural state is solitary poor nasty brutish and short Schmidt was building on this very pessimistic view of the world from some explicitly theological roots out of his Roman Catholic upbringing about sin and the consequences of sin for the division between people's he outlined his theories with allusions to the enmity between woman and the serpent in Genesis and the Tower of Babel the purpose of the political then for Schmitt is to provide a locus for unity balance with a clear sense of who the state is against as a buttress to that unity this is what he calls the Freud fine to distinction the friend or foe approach to politics in the same way that Hobbes was attempting to address questions like what gives legitimacy to government and binds us together and the aftermath of the English Civil War so Schmitt was engaging with similar questions for a debt ravaged Germany dealing with the settlement of the League of Nations after the first world war the Thielen theological impulse of Schmidt's thinking was essentially a critique of modern liberalism difference between groups could not be obscured and the false unities of a League of Nations would only lead to chaos liberalism aspired to neutrality and optimism and was thus inherently theological because it espoused a method perpetual peace in contradiction to the Christian anthropology of sin difference needed to be acknowledged and of and alliances fostered only in the heightening of who the other the enemy were it's not difficult to see then how this political theory could become a theoretical basis for the scapegoating and persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany in Smits analysis the true state takes on theological character when it admits judgment outside the rule of law this is what he describes as the state of exception this power is the true mark of the sovereign of deciding a matter outside any mechanism of accountability the state of exception is therefore the rationale for totalitarianism what this state of exception does is to admit that the state is always making judgments about what is right and wrong and that secular liberalism is an insufficient sufficient warrant to that power of judgment from its most famous dictum that I hope explains this four point is the following all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts what he is doing is arguing for the inherently religious or transcendent nature of governmental rule the judgment of law cannot but stand outside the will of the people democracy and liberalism presume and objectivity and an optimism that can never be attained and fails the realities of selfish individuals so what's this got to do with Christian theology what is it about some of these deeply unpleasant beliefs that warrant serious consideration by political theorists and theologians alike well the first point and perhaps the most obvious is in that phrase political theology that Schmitt reclaimed it will be necessary to go right back to st. Augustine of Hippo to begin to draw the connections that make Schmitt such a significant conversation partner political theology is a phrase that has its origins in the philosophies of the classical Greek city-states the Poly's of the common good that we see in the writings of Aristotle these ideas flowed through into the stoic philosophies of Rome who distinguished the gods of the city from other gods and theologies it is this thinking about the theological nature of the city that provides the counterpoint to Augustine's seminal treatise the City of God at the beginning of the fifth century Augustine's classical political theology articulates the doctrine of the - the idea that there are two cities the City of God ruled by love of God and the City of Man the earthly City ruled by love of self and therefore having the need for coercion the City of God is eternal and the city of man is mortal the key concept that Augustine describes for the purpose of political theory is the secular the secular those things that are provisional and contingent that will not last forever human government is one of those things that subsist in the secular the secular now it's not the same as it's contemporary usage of the word for those things that are not religious neither is a doctrine of the two the same as a separation of church and state the principle that we see articulated in the US Constitution the two cities of God are Atman or humanity can be found in both the church and the city-state the City of God overlaps with the temporal the love of God visible in the present contingent realities of human governance as the love of self is evident in the failed failures and sin of the church what Augustine's City of God provides is a picture of the city of politics that is set within an eschatological vision all human rule and governance is set within the bounds of the rule of Christ which is already and not yet breaking into the present but yet to be fully realized this move acts to qualify the pretensions of human government while giving space to coercive judgments that reflect the need to restrain evil in the interim when Schmitt revitalized the phrase political theology he was reweaving some of the threads of Augustine's city of God even while creating a parody of Christian politics human governance would not give us an eternal peace the big lie of secular liberalism in Schmidt's eyes all political judgment was theological in some way or other pretending to a transcendent place of decision the state of exception for many Christian theologians after the fact of Nazi Germany Schmidt's ideas instrumentalized Christianity this version of political theology furnished a new mythology a very anti-christian political theory that legitimated anti-semitism and totalitarianism there are two themes though apparent in Smits objections to political liberalism that seem to be evident in the contemporary wave of political theology that have their antecedents in Augustine's doctrine of the two the first is a critique of liberal or liberal optimism as a religious move and the second is the desire to resituated eeks within theology in 2006 Peter Scott and William Cavanaugh edited a Blackwell companion to political theology this Walden gives us access to many of the theologian theologians that use this phrase political theology and self-described as Augustinian in their advocacy of the doctrine of the two this is a largely Western group of theologians from a range of traditions including Roman Catholic Anglican Reformed Methodist amongst others names such as Stanley how ask John Milbank Katharine Pickstock Oliver Donovan and William Cavanaugh are very different approaches to Scripture and theology but they have in common a project to question the optimism an objectivity of secular liberalism and to reframe politics within theology it's worth setting the phrase political theology against two other terms familiar to Christian responses to the political the first public theology and the second liberation theology where public theology assumes a common language of discourse and under underlying set of values that can provide a basis for the discussion of the political political theology would assert the reality of difference in the language of the Roman Catholic Philipp philosopher Alistair McIntyre a figure that is often cited by Augustinian political theologians like Stanley how are some John Milbank moral inquiry exposes the incommensurability of rival traditions there are no pre agreed rules with which Christianity atheism and Islam for example can decide upon the good in the British tradition a theologian like the anglican bishop William temple would exemplify what we'd would describe as public theology having at its root a strong theology of the Incarnation the church's political task is to adapt its message and mission to the context of the day and in partnership with government unions and Industry to seek the common good there will be areas about expertise outside the provenance and skill of churches to deal with in temples terms these middle axioms are where the church concedes input it is assume though that there are underlying principles that unite governments unions industry and church in the political endeavor and the North American tradition Reinhold Niebuhr to provide a a parallel public theology that assumes the calm shanon's of liberal democracy with the church's political vision and provides theological legitimacy to the separation of church and state the political theologians like how are some Milbank such public theologies have resulted in a collusion with the privatization of religion the abrasion that the Christian faith brings to all political powers and projects is occluded by the presumption of an underlying unity of values or principles with such an overarching political vision the church's ability to be a prophetic community the only truly political space is undermined and the dangers of an internalized Kotick spirituality become particularly real like Schmitt the political theologians would observe that the state takes on the religious characteristics of the church the state has become a vehicle of transcendence that is the real focus for hope and unity where the church should be the foretaste of the kingdom of God the community in whom one can encounter the Living God and the anticipation of the hope of creation the state in public Thiele theologies has instead taken that mantle Liberation Theology czar different again exemplified by Gustavo Gutierrez and Leonardo Boff emanating from South America in the 1960s and now our theological movement right across the world there are many ways theology is demonstrating a creative dialogue with Marxism paying a special attention to the issue of structural sin and often infant emphasizes something of God's preference for the poor it is on the margins are in the subversion of sinful power structures but the church is most fully itself and indeed where it will encounter God where public theologies see underlying unities that enable public conversations liberation theology will recognize that Kiedis juncture between the powerful and the powerless now of course there are a range of nuances of perspectives when within all these categories but a pull of political theologian like Oliver O'Donovan challenges the tendency of some liberation theology to see the church's mission through the prism of power for a Donovan this amounts to a zero-sum game that essentially results in the giving of power to another sinful community political theology reclaiming Augustine is set within the horizon of eschatology structural iniquities have their place but the real vision of Christian politics is a lordship of Christ pictured given us in the book of Revelation where the powers of the earth bring their tribute to the slain lamb and therefore and for Donovan this is his controversial contribution the project had Christendom could legitimately be a Christian project even the powerful can be redeemed and be part of that eschatological vision towards the ultimate reign of Christ where public theologies have tended to privatize a Christian faith according to political theologians liberation theologians have uncoupled salvation history from Christian politics by reclaiming the mission of God for Christian politics the church then takes on more significance for political theory Luke bretherton has described the wave of political theology as an ecclesial turn for this very reason the community of the redeemed around the Eucharist sinful but forgiven bound together in unity across all ages and cultures and bodies the truly political community to which creation points for political theologians Christian anthropology and the Telos of the new creation book and any political inquiry so that's about two Smit and recap some of idea some of his ideas that flow into the contemporary debates on political theology secular liberalism the belief that there is an underlying consensus of core values that can inform rational political decisions is am f any government makes decisions to judge from a position of transcendence and that has religious character there is a strand of Augustinian political theology that would want to remind us of the provisionality of all political projects putting things in eschatological perspective and omitting that sin will infect any political settlement this is a strand that the political theologians would wish to affirm but is Schmidt's account enough the pessimism that he declares requiring a strong totalizing government seems to be too bleak a reading of humanity this arguably is where Schmidt's contribution tips over into mythology and becomes a unchristian one of the optimism of the image of God in human beings is not nature graced with God's presence held together and caring in Christ the hidden word for all the talk of division and rebellion is there not a form of underlying unity where creation somehow make sensing Christ and points to Christ is not everything that is good and true and beautiful but a foretaste of the beatific vision that creation is moving towards this is another important strand of Christian political theology that the conversation which Schmitt helps us to enlarge upon a more optimistic vision would draw the theology of Thomas Aquinas alongside the pessimism of Augustine the co inherence of faith and reason would give hope to the idea of political discourse even across different faith traditions this two mystic theology of the common as the emphasis that we see in the public theologies of temple or of Catholic social theory exemplified by the American Jesuit John Courtney Marie as Christians we have a Salvation history that provides a foundation for what a fully political vision might look like if creation is rational unordered then surely the good of Christian politics can be explained and justified in terms that are not exclusive to Christians by way of example love of neighbor is a commandment from Christ to Christians but the practice of loving neighbor can be explained and justified and become a good that has appeal beyond the church without it needing to carry the authority of it being a confessional injunction from the Son of God such is the pragmatism and rationale for translation in Christian politics the jury is out though Schmidt despite the evils of his anti-semitism and the pessimism of his totalitarianism put his finger on two key threads in contemporary political theology is political liberalism a Shimura a false god that obscures true politics and how might we frame politics within a theological framework rather than attempt to squeeze theology into a political framework we will find that in exploring the answers to these two questions a long-standing tension in political theology comes to the fore on the one hand the reality of sin and the penultimate of all human politics that we see in Augustine's doctrine of the two and on the other the optimism of the common good and grace nature careering in Christ a vision that enables a rational discussions toward shared ends across difference after Aquinas Schmidt's legacy itself is a sobering reminder of the power of ideas that our thinking can be used to promote practices for good or ill the world of political theology of ecclesial politics has sought to reclaim the centrality of the Christian tradition for political vision whether this can be done without the translation of public theologies or the preference for the poor of liberation theology is not just a theoretical issue it's right at the intersection of Christian political theory for the 21st century in a world increasingly conscious of religious difference Schmidt in a pagan eyes forum told us that our political vision revealed who we worshiped political theologians would bring us back to the starting point of Christian politics the lordship of Christ you

Channel: Timeline Theological Videos

Views: 37,541

Rating: 4.7688441 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: LzSxocM7mTM

Length: 27min 54sec (1674 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 28 2014