Type of Credit: Elective
Credit(s)
Number of Students
‘Political Theologies of World Orders’ is a one semester module for postgraduate students. It aims at (1) presenting the scope and core areas of political theologies, (2) nurturing their abilities to reflect on the theopolitical aspects of world politics, and (3) developing their abilities to express their analysis and interpretation of world politics through an inter-religious, theopolitical lens.
能力項目說明
The objectives of the module include (1) familiarising the students with the central themes and approaches of political theologies, (2) encouraging the students’ development in thinking critically and writing academically, and (3) fostering the students’ awareness and reflection on the relations between religions and world politics.
The design of the assignments, including the essay abstract (mid-term), weekly class presentation, and term paper (end of term), aims to help students to develop the ability to form coherent and succinct arguments, and present them in an articulate, well-informed, academic term paper.
1. Introduction: The Question, the Approach, and the Implications
William Bain, ‘Chapter 11. Political Theology and Uncertainty in International Relations’, in Lotte List, Mitchell Dean, and Stefan Schwarzkopf eds., Political Theology Today: 100 Years After Carl Schmitt (Bloomsbury, 2023), pp. 171-184.
2. The Theological and the Political for the Ancients and the Moderns
Dante Alighieri, Dante: Monarchy (CUP, 1996).
Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
3. The Theopolitical Tradition of Christianity
Ernst Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology (Princeton University Press, 2016).
René Girard, The Scapegoat (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
4. The Theopolitical Tradition of Imperial China
Dong, Zhongshu, Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn (Columbia University Press, 2015).
Wang, Aihe, Cosmology and Political Culture in Early China (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
5. The Theopolitical Tradition of India
Kautilya, The Arthashastra (Penguin, 2000).
Deepshikha Shahi, ‘3. Kautilya Meets Buddha: Arthasastra between the Realpolitik and Moralpolitik of Asoka’s Mauryan Empire’, Kautilya and Non-Western IR Theory (Springer, 2018), pp. 57-94.
6. The Theopolitical Tradition of Islam
Ibn Khaldûn, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (Princeton University Press, 2020).
Paul L. Heck, Political Theology and Islam: From the Birth of Empire to the Modern State (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023).
7. The Theopolitical Tradition of Buddhism
Matthew J. Moore, Buddhism and Political Theory (OUP, 2016), pp. 15-42.
Aakash Singh, ‘11. The Political Theology of Navayana Buddhism’, in Peter Losonczi, Mika Luoma-Aho, and Aakash Singh eds. The Future of Political Theology: Religious and Theological Perspectives (Routledge, 2016).
8. The Political Theology of Modern International Order
Martti Koskenniemi, ‘International Law as Political Theology: How to Read Nomos der Erde?’, Constellations, 11(2004): 492-511.
Liane Hartnett, ‘Love as a Practice of Peace: The Political Theologies of Tolstoy, Gandhi and King’, in Vassilios Paipais ed., Theology and World Politics: Metaphysics, Genealogies, Political Theologies (Palgrave, 2020), pp. 265-287.
9. The Political Theology of the Post-WWII Order
Dorothee Sölle, Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic for the Future (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1970).
Nur Masalha & Lisa Isherwood eds., Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-Israel: Indigenous, Contextual, and Postcolonial Perspectives (The Lutterworth Press, 2014).
10. The Socialist Political Theology
Mikhail Bakunin, ‘The Political Theology of Mazzini And The International’, The Anarchist Library, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/mikhail-bakunin-the-political-theology-of-mazzini-and-the-international (accessed 18 June 2025).
Peter McMylor, ‘Chapter 4. Marxism and Socialism: Sacred and Profane’, in Graeme Kirkpatrick, Peter McMylor, Simin Fadaee eds., Marxism, Religion, and Emancipatory Politics (Springer, 2022), pp. 59-78.
11. The Liberal Political Theology
Nicolas Guilhot, ‘2. American Katechon: Christian Realism and the Theological Foundations of International Relations Theory’, After the Enlightenment: Political Realism and International Relations in the Mid-Twentieth Century (CUP, 2017), pp. 69-114.
12. The End of Cold War Revisited
Desmond Mpilo Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness (Doubleday, 1999).
Kathleen Nadeau, 'Chapter 9. Theologies of Struggle, Marxism, and Grassroots Development in the Philippines’, in Graeme Kirkpatrick, Peter McMylor, Simin Fadaee eds., Marxism, Religion, and Emancipatory Politics (Springer, 2022), pp. 157-176.
13. The Return of Religion in Global Politics
Slavoj Žižek, On Belief (Routledge, 2001)
Shannon Brincat, ‘The Cosmology of Mādhyamaka Buddhism and Its World of Deep Relationalism’, in Vassilios Paipais ed., Theology and World Politics: Metaphysics, Genealogies, Political Theologies (Palgrave, 2020), pp. 105-128.
Scott M. Thomas, ‘7. Soulcraft as Statecraft? Diplomacy, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding’, The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations: The Struggle for the Soul of the Twenty-first Century (Palgrave, 2005), pp. 173-196.
14. The Political Theology of the People’s Republic of China
Jieren Hu and Joshua Mauldin, ‘6. Tripartite Control of Religion: Reconceptualizing State-Religion Relations in China’, in Joshua Mauldin ed., Political Theology in Chinese Society (Routledge, 2024).
Liu Xiaofeng, Sino-Theology and the Philosophy of History: A Collection of Essays by Liu Xiaofeng (Brill, 2015).
Jiang Shigong, China’s Hong Kong: A Political and Cultural Perspective (Springer, 2017).
15. The Return of Heavenly Kingdoms
Kristina Stoeckl & Dmitry Uzlaner, The Moralist International: Russia in the Global Culture Wars (Fordham University Press, 2022).
Michał Łuczewski, Slavic Political Theology: Słowacki Between Bakunin and Schmitt, Church Life Journal: A Journal of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, February 24, 2023. https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/slavic-political-theology-juliusz-sowacki-between-bakunin-and-schmitt/ (accessed 18 June 2025).
16. The Future of Legitimation of World Order
Kwok Pui-lan, Postcolonial Politics and Theology: Unraveling Empire for a Global World (Westminster John Knox Press, 2021).
Aakash Singh, ‘11. The Political Theology of Navayana Buddhism’, in Péter Losonczi, Mika Luoma-aho, and Aakash Singh eds., The Future of Political Theology: Religious and Theological Perspectives (Routledge 2012).
|
Class Attendance |
10% |
|
Participation |
10% |
|
Individual presentation |
30% |
|
Abstract of term paper (1 page) |
20% |
|
Term paper (1500-2000 words) |
30% |
Lotte List, Mitchell Dean, and Stefan Schwarzkopf eds., Political Theology Today: 100 Years After Carl Schmitt (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Ernst Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology (Princeton University Press, 2016).
René Girard, The Scapegoat (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
Dong, Zhongshu, Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn (Columbia University Press, 2015).
Wang, Aihe, Cosmology and Political Culture in Early China (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Kautilya, The Arthashastra (Penguin, 2000).
Deepshikha Shahi, Kautilya and Non-Western IR Theory (Springer, 2018).
Ibn Khaldûn, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (Princeton University Press, 2020).
Paul L. Heck, Political Theology and Islam: From the Birth of Empire to the Modern State (University of Notre Dame Press, 2023).
Matthew J. Moore, Buddhism and Political Theory (OUP, 2016).
Peter Losonczi, Mika Luoma-Aho, and Aakash Singh eds. The Future of Political Theology: Religious and Theological Perspectives (Routledge, 2016).
Vassilios Paipais ed., Theology and World Politics: Metaphysics, Genealogies, Political Theologies (Palgrave, 2020).
Dorothee Sölle, Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic for the Future (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1970).
Nur Masalha & Lisa Isherwood eds., Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-Israel: Indigenous, Contextual, and Postcolonial Perspectives (The Lutterworth Press, 2014).
Mikhail Bakunin, ‘The Political Theology of Mazzini And The International’
Graeme Kirkpatrick, Peter McMylor, Simin Fadaee eds., Marxism, Religion, and Emancipatory Politics (Springer, 2022).
Nicolas Guilhot, After the Enlightenment: Political Realism and International Relations in the Mid-Twentieth Century (CUP, 2017).
Slavoj Žižek, On Belief (Routledge, 2001).
Scott M. Thomas, The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations: The Struggle for the Soul of the Twenty-first Century (Palgrave, 2005).
Joshua Mauldin ed., Political Theology in Chinese Society (Routledge, 2024).
Liu Xiaofeng, Sino-Theology and the Philosophy of History: A Collection of Essays by Liu Xiaofeng (Brill, 2015).
Jiang Shigong, China’s Hong Kong: A Political and Cultural Perspective (Springer, 2017).
Kristina Stoeckl & Dmitry Uzlaner, The Moralist International: Russia in the Global Culture Wars (Fordham University Press, 2022).
Kwok Pui-lan, Postcolonial Politics and Theology: Unraveling Empire for a Global World (Westminster John Knox Press, 2021).