Description:
In the 1960s, the strict opposition between the religious and the secular began to break down, blurring the distinction between political philosophy and political theology. This collapse contributed to the decline of modern liberalism, which supported a neutral, value-free space for capitalism. It also deeply unsettled political, religious, and philosophical realms, forced to confront the conceptual stakes of a return to religion.
Gamely intervening in a contest that defies simple resolutions, Clayton Crockett conceives of the postmodern convergence of the secular and the religious as a basis for emancipatory political thought. Engaging themes of sovereignty, democracy, potentiality, law, and event from a religious and political point of view, Crockett articulates a theological vision that responds to our contemporary world and its theo-political realities. Specifically, he claims we should think about God and the state in terms of potentiality rather than sovereign power. Deploying new concepts, such as Slavoj Zizek's idea of parallax and Catherine Malabou's notion of plasticity, his argument engages with debates over the nature and status of religion, ideology, and messianism. Tangling with the work of Derrida, Deleuze, Spinoza, Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, John D. Caputo, and Catherine Keller, Crockett concludes with a reconsideration of democracy as a form of political thought and religious practice, underscoring its ties to modern liberal capitalism while also envisioning a more authentic democracy unconstrained by those ties.
Brief description: Clayton Crockett (PhD, Religion, Syracuse) is Professor and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of Deleuze Beyond Badiou: Ontology, Multiplicity, and Event (Columbia, 2013 and Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism (Columbia, 2011); the coauthor (with Ward Blanton, Noelle Vahanian, and Jefffrey Robbins) of An Insurrectionist Manifesto: Gospels for a Radical Politics (Columbia, 2016); the editor of Secular Theology: American Radical Theological Thought (Routledge, 2001) and Religion and Violence in a Secular World: Toward a New Political Thdeology (Virginia, 2006); and the coeditor (with Creston Davis and Slavoj Zizek) if Hdegel and the Infinite: Religion, Politics, and Dialectic (Columbia, 2011). He is also a coeditor of the series Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture (Columbia).
Review Quotes: This is a thoughtful, clearly written and challenging book.--Philosophy in Review