Political Theology

Political Theology

By F. Schüssler Fiorenza

Political theology has two distinct meanings. Firstly, it is the implicit or explicit use of religious symbols to interpret, to justify, or to criticize political events, systems, or units. As implicit, it is almost coexistent with religion. As explicit, political theology is a distinct division of theology which, in middle Stoicism, was distinguished from mythic and natural theology. In the European Enlightenment and Catholic Restoration, it was contrasted with the notion of CIVIL RELIGION, and in the 1960s it was a theological response to existentialism that stressed the public significance of Christian ESCHATOLOGY. Secondly, in its other meaning, political theology stands for a foundational theology that analyzes the interrelation between political patterns and religious beliefs. Their mutual influence is studied to uncover the meaning, truth, and practice of religious symbols.

Historical Analysis.

Although both meanings of political theology are quite clear, political theology has often been confused with political ethics or has often been identified either with traditionalism or with LIBERATION theology. A historical survey will underscore its distinctive meaning.

Antiquity. In middle Stoicism, political theology appears along with mythic and natural theology as parts of a tripartite division. This Hellenistic division became current in Roman theology when Pontifex Quintus Mucius Scaevola argued for the necessity of political theology as a defense of the Roman civil religion. This tripartite division is elaborated by Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 B.C.) in his Antiquities, a major source of information about the tripartite division. Since it is no longer extant, it must be reconstructed from TERTULLIAN's Ad nationes and AUGUSTINE's De Civitate Dei and their discussions of political theology. In this tripartite division, each theology has a specific source, locus, and theme. Mythic theology consists of the poet's narration of divine stories and its locus is the theatre. Natural theology consists of the philosophical world views propounded by the philosophers in their schools. Political theology is attributed to priests and statesmen; its locus is the cities. Varro distinguishes between uncertain and certain gods, elucidates a natural theology, and gives an allegorical interpretation of Roman myths in order to salvage and defend the Roman political theology.

Both Tertullian and Augustine criticize political theology. For Tertullian, valid theology demands criteria of certitude, morality, and universality. Political theology lacks universality, for each city has its own religion. Augustine's criticisms are much more fundamental. Political theology rests upon a mythic theology. If the myths and fables are false, then the political theology is invalid. Likewise it is only as valid as its underlying metaphysical or natural theology. Augustine's analysis and critique contributes several insights. Political theology along with [Page 460] natural and mythic theology are viewed as three fundamentally distinct ways of speaking of God. They are distinct, but are radically intertwined. Moreover, Augustine challenges the adequacy of utilitarianism as a theological criterion of political theology. He argues against the immanence of the Roman natural theology and confronts political theology with his eschatological conception of the City of God.

Enlightenment and Restoration. Distinct evaluations of political theology appear in the ENLIGHTENMENT and Catholic Restoration. The tripartite division of theology is cited by such leading representatives of the Enlightenment as H. Grotius (1583–1645), E. Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1581–1648), P. Bayle (1647–1706), G. Vico (1668–1744) and M. Diderot (1713–1784). Just as they criticize positive religion and seek to replace it with a natural religion, so too do they criticize political theology. Rousseau introduces "civil religion" as a replacement for the confessional political theologies. It should become the basis of the social contract and should encourage citizens to love their civil duties and sacrifice themselves for them. Since the religious wars were seen as the consequences of confessional political theologies, a natural civil religion would avoid such strife. Nevertheless the notion of civil religion faces a dilemma since the particularity demanded by a civil religion is undercut by the universality of natural religion. Social utility and universal truth are often in conflict.

The Catholic Restoration, represented by Catholic nobility in exile, not only elaborated, but also defended, a political theology. J. Donoso Cortes (1809–53), Louis G. A. de Bonald (1754–1840), Joseph de Maistre (1773–1821), Carl Ludwig von Haller (1768–1854), and the early Félicité Lamennais (1782–1854) constitute this restoration and can all be classed under the heading of seeking to reconstitute society on the basis of religion. They perceived the interrelation between political ideas and religious ideas and asserted that changes in religious and philosophical world views led to changes in political patterns. Therefore, they saw the French Revolution as a result of the Enlightenment and criticized both. Against the Enlightenment they argued that no natural religion exists, but only positive religion. Only a positive religion, not a civil religion, could demonstrate its utility for the state. They developed an apologetic for the social necessity of positive religion, gave primacy to the social over the individual, and suggested political utility and common consent as social criteria of theological affirmations. Their political theology underscored the sinfulness of human nature, the need for strong authority, and the Lordship of God and Christ.

Current Usage. In Germany the term political theology was used in the 1960s by Johannes B. Metz to characterize a distinct theological approach and endeavor. It expressed a theological response to the secularization and privatization of religion in industrialized, technocratic societies. Against the individualism and subjectivism of EXISTENTIAL THEOLOGY and philosophy, political theology argued that existentialism failed to come to grips with the privatizing tendencies of modern society. In fact, it only reinforced and justified them. Political theology was therefore proposed primarily as a public theology or political hermeneutics that sought to draw out the public significance and practical import of religious symbols. It especially sought to retrieve the meaning of eschatology as a source of critique and amelioration in the sociopolitical order (see THEOLOGY OF HOPE).

Since political theology underscores the public significance of faith, it turned toward analyzing the questions of hermeneutics and the theory-practice relation. It sought to distinguish itself from previous Constantinian political theologies and to elaborate a post-Enlightenment conception of theology's relation to political practice. These issues moved political theology in the direction of fundamental theology.

Systematic Clarification. 

The historical survey indicates that, despite diverse uses, political theology primarily refers to the implicit or explicit use of religious symbols to legitimate or to criticize political reality. The contemporary use of political theology as response to the Marxist critique is an important shift, for whereas previously political theology justified and legitimated political systems, now it was ordered to their critique.

Although the Enlightenment distinguished between a confessional political theology and a natural civil religion, political theology generally refers to the reflective theological attempt to justify or defend civil or political religions. In its most recent usage, political theology was appropriated precisely as an explicit theological criticism of civil or political religions, even though some would see the civil religion itself as exercising a critical function within a country. This meaning of political theology distinguishes it quite clearly from political ethics and liberation theology.

Distinction from Political Ethics. Political ethics focuses on deontic judgments of moral obligation or on aretaic judgments of moral value and rightness; political theology analyzes how religious symbols either legitimate or criticize a political and social order. To the extent, however, that any symbolic vision leads to concrete action, it needs to be complemented by ethical reflection. On this point the advocates of political theology disagree; some demand that a specifically theological ethic as an integral part of the religious vision link theory and practice; others claim that the pluralism of modern society demands a more universal rational ethic. [Page 461]

Distinction from Liberation Theology. Political theology, moreover, differs from liberation theology as the general from the specific. Liberation theology is a specific political theology insofar as it is usually linked with a specific group (Blacks, women, minority groups, underprivileged nations). These appeal to their specific experiences; they then analyze their religious tradition in relation to their experience, and, drawing on their tradition, they propose a concrete vision and praxis of liberation. Since liberation theology is theoretically and practically concerned with the interrelation between religious symbols and political praxis, it is a political theology, but its methodic basis is formed by a specific experience as a starting-point and is ordered to particular political and social goals.

A Foundational Theology. In addition to its primary meaning, political theology has come to be understood as a FOUNDATIONAL THEOLOGY. As such its primary concern is not the practical application of religious symbols, but the analytical and reconstructive task of studying the pragmatics of religious symbols. It investigates their origin, development, and use in relation to the sociopolitical order. Political theology so understood seeks to come to terms with the sociology of religion and the sociology of knowledge insofar as these affect the foundations of faith and the basis of theology. It thereby extends the historical-critical method into a socio-critical method. Whereas the historical-critical method studies the historical context of diverse texts, political theology analyzes the social conditions and political effects of religious beliefs. Political theology would therefore come to grips with a Weberian analysis of the correlation between social status and religious beliefs, with a Durkheimian analysis of the correlation between religious and political patterns of organization, and with the Marxist analysis of the possible ideological function of religion. This foundational task would make systematic theology and theological ethics more explicitly self-reflective of their basis. Its method would not be simply hermeneutical or transcendental, but rather reconstructive, since it would take into account the history of the intertwinement of the religious and the socio-political.

Bibliography:

G. BAUM, Religion and Alientation (New York 1975). W. R. COATES, God in Public. Political Theology beyond Niebuhr (Grand Rapids, Mich. 1974). H. FELD, et al., Dogma und Politik (Mainz 1973). A. FIERRO, The Militant Gospel: An Analysis of Contemporary Political Theologies (New York 1978). F. FIORENZA, "'Political Theology': An Historical Analysis," Theology Digest 25 (1977) 317–334; "Political Theology as Foundational Theology," Catholic Theological Society of America. Proceedings 32 (1977) 142–177. R. D. JOHNS, Man in the World. The Theology of Johannes Baptist Metz (Missoula, Mont. 1976). A. KEE, ed., A Reader in Political Theology (Philadelphia 1974). J. B. METZ, Theology of the World tr. W. GLEN-DOEPEL (New York 1969); Glaube in Geschichte und Gesellschaft (Mainz 1977). H. PEUKERT, ed., Diskussion zur 'politischen Theologie' (Mainz 1969). C. SCHMITT, Politische Theologie (Berlin 1922). Politische Theologie, II (Berlin 1970). D. SÖLLE, Political Theology (Stuttgart 1976) excellent bibliog. S. WOLIN, Politics and Vision (Boston 1960). M. XHAUFFLAIRE, La Theólogie politique (Paris 1972). See also bibliog. for Liberation Theology.

Source Citation: Fiorenza, F. Schüssler. "Political Theology." New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. 2^nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 459-461.