MACMILLAN Theology and World Politics: Metaphysics, Genealogies, Political Theologies (International Political Theory)

Situated within the wider post-secular turn in politics and international relations, this volume focuses not on religion per se, but rather explicitly on theology. Contributions to this collection highlight the political theological foundations of international theory and world politics, recasting theology and politics as symbiotic discourses with all the risks, promises and open questions this relation may involve. The overarching claim the book makes is that all politics has theology embedded in it, both in the genealogical sense of carrying ineradicable traces of rival theological traditions, and also in the more ontological sense of being enacted by alternative configurations of the theologico-political. The book is unique in bringing together a diverse group of scholars, spanning knowledge areas as varied as IR, political theory, philosophy, theology, and history to investigate the complex interconnections between theology and world politics. It will be of interest to students and scholars of political theory, international relations, intellectual history, and political theology. Review "A new generation of scholars, often with more interdisciplinary backgrounds, many of whom are represented in this path-breaking book, mark out what can be called ‘the theological turn’ in politics and international relations. They argue that world politics is paradoxically more deeply political and theological at the same time. It was this way in the past, it is in the present, and it will always be so insofar as the ‘secular’ itself is an invention of political theology. This cutting-edge volume contributes to a new challenging research agenda for understanding the ways religion, theology, and spirituality influence ideas of world order, peace, violence, and care for creation – and, even love, brotherhood, and sisterhood in the globalised multi-cultural world of the twenty-first century." (Scott M. Thomas, Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Bath, UK) From the Back Cover Situated within the wider post-secular turn in politics and international relations, this volume focuses not on religion per se, but rather explicitly on theology. Contributions to this collection highlight the political theological foundations of international theory and world politics, recasting theology and politics as symbiotic discourses with all the risks, promises and open questions this relation may involve. The overarching claim the book makes is that all politics has theology embedded in it, both in the genealogical sense of carrying ineradicable traces of rival theological traditions, and also in the more ontological sense of being enacted by alternative configurations of the theologico-political. The book is unique in bringing together a diverse group of scholars, spanning knowledge areas as varied as IR, political theory, philosophy, theology, and history to investigate the complex interconnections between theology and world politics. It will be of interest to students and scholars of political theory, international relations, intellectual history, and political theology. Vassilios Paipais is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St Andrews, UK. He is the author of  Political Ontology and International Political Thought: Voiding a Pluralist World (2017). About the Author Vassilios Paipais is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St Andrews, UK. He is the author of Political Ontology and International Political Thought: Voiding a Pluralist World (2017).