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Rel. 745: Political Theology: Church and State
Spring 2006
Yale Divinity School
Instructor: Joe R. Jones
Office: S-136
432-5371
joe.jones@yale.edu
www.grammaroffaith.com
1. Course Description: This course intends a theological examination
of some issues involved in construing the relations between the church-as-polis
practicing a theological politics and the world-as-polis in the form of
the nation-state with its politics. While special consideration will be
given to these issues within the United States, the concern is not to
examine the history of constitutional interpretations of church-state
relations. The concern is throughout theological in character.
2. Objectives of the Course: The course aims to expose the student to
various traditional and contemporary ways of construing the nature and
purpose of the church in relation to the larger social/governmental worlds
in which it exists. We will attempt to rejuvenate the word ‘politics’
both for the church itself and for the state and therewith to unravel
and diagnose some of the persistent confusions that stalk political discussions
in church and state.
3. Course Requirements:
A. Class Participation: Each student is expected to attend class regularly
and come prepared to participate in the class discussion.
B. Course Readings: Each student is expected to read and reflect upon
the required weekly readings as indicated in the course schedule below.
C. Weekly Theses: Each student will formulate 3 to 5 descriptive theses
and 2 to 3 evaluative theses/questions about the main themes of the reading
assigned for each class session. A thesis should be no more than 5 sentences
in length. Theses may be read in class to start discussion and will be
handed in to the instructor at the end of class and graded. Without penalty,
the student may refrain from submitting theses for two class sessions.
Not required for Jan 18 class.
D. Major Essay: Each student will write a major essay on some aspect of
the issues that have been raised and addressed in class readings and discussions.
Such an essay may focus on one theologian or on several or on one issue
or a cluster of issues. In any event, the essay should reflect both the
student’s thoughtful engagement with and diagnostic awareness of
theological issues and her or his own capacity to marshal arguments and
make judgments. The essay should not exceed 7500 words. It will be due
on May 3rd.
E. Grading: Class Participation and Weekly Theses
40%
Major Essay
60%
4. Required Texts:
Tyco Packet:
#1 Readings in Augustinian Theology:
Oliver O’Donovan, “Introduction and Selections from Augustine”
in From Irenaeus to Grotius: Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought,
100-1625 [1999].
Oliver O’Donovan, “The Political Thought of City of God Book
19” in Bonds of Imperfection: Christian Politics, Past and Present,
Oliver O’Donovan and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan [2004].
Paul Weithman, “Augustine’s Political Theology” in Cambridge
Companion to Augustine, eds. Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzman [2001].
Robert E. Wilken, “Augustine’s City of God Today” in
The Two Cities of God: The Church’s Responsibility for the Earthly
City, eds. Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson [1997].
#2
Readings in Lutheran Political Theology
Church and State: Lutheran Perspectives, eds John R. Stumme and
Robert W. Tuttle [2003], pp. 3-50.
#3
Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Political Realism
Selections from Reinhold Niebuhr on Politics, eds. Harry R. Davis
and Robert G. Good [1960], pp. 43-209.
#4
John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus, 2nd ed., [1994],
pp. 193-211.
#5
Stanley Hauerwas, “The Church and Liberal Democracy”
in A Community of
Character [1981], pp. 72-86, 246-254; and “On Being a Christian
and an American” in A Better Hope [2002], 23-34, 218-222;
and “On Keeping Theological Ethics Theological” in The
Hauerwas Reader, 51-74.
#6
Roman Catholic Social Teachings and the Papacy
Centesimus Annus [1991], an encyclical by John Paul II.
George Weigel, “Papacy and Power” in First Things,
Feb 2001, pp. 18-25.
Richard John Neuhaus, “Our American Babylon” in First
Things, Dec 2005, pp. 23-28.
Other Required Texts:
One Electorate Under God? A Dialogue on Religion and American Politics,
eds. E. J. Dionne Jr., Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Kayla M. Drogosz [2004].
John Howard Yoder, The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel [1984].
Stanley Hauerwas, After Christendom? [1991].
Robert Audi and Nicholas Wolterstorff, Religion in the Public Square:
The Place of Religious Convictions in Political Debate [1997]
5. Highly Recommended Texts:
Oliver O’Donovan, The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the
Roots of Political Theology [1996].
Charles E. Curran, Catholic Social Teaching 1891-Present [2002].
William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and
the Body of Christ [1998].
Daniel M. Bell Jr., Liberation Theology After the End of History [2001].
Kathryn Tanner, The Politics of God: Christian Theologies and Social
Justice [1992]
6. Recommended Texts:
The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, eds. Peter Scott
and William T. Cavanaugh [2004]. Hereinafter referred to as BCPT.
Joe R. Jones, A Grammar of Christian Faith: Systematic Explorations
in Christian Life and Doctrine, 2 vols. [2002]
Joe R. Jones, On Being the Church of Jesus Christ in Tumultuous Times
[2005]
Class and Reading Schedule
Jan 11
Orientation to Course and Mapping of Issues
Jan 18
Current Discussions in U.S. of Church and State,
Religion and Politics
Read: One Electorate Under God? A Dialogue on Religion and American Politics,
eds. E. J. Dionne Jr., Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Kayla M. Drogosz [2004].
Each student will identify one or two essays which he/she regards as most
agreeable to her own present convictions about church and state, politics
and religion and write a short essay of no more than 900 words in which
she identifies the author(s), states clearly and precisely what the author’s
position is, and indicates why the student finds it agreeable.
Jan 25
Augustinian and Lutheran Issues
Read: Tyco Packet either #1 [Augustinian] or #2 [Lutheran]
See also:
The City of God: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Dorothy
F. Donnelly [1995].
BCPT, 35-47, contains a fine bibliography as well.
Charles Norris Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture: A Study
of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine [1957]. A magisterial
study of Augustine in the context of Roman culture and politics.
Feb 1
Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Political Realism
Read: Tyco Packet #3
Selections from Reinhold Niebuhr on Politics, eds. Harry R. Davis
and Robert G. Good [1960], 43-209.
See also:
Robin W. Lovin, Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism [1995].
BCPT, 180-193.
Reinhold Niebuhr: His Religious, Social, and Political Thought,
eds. Charles Kegley and Robert Bretall [1956]. Essays on Niebuhr by his
contemporaries.
Stanley Hauerwas, With the Grain of the Universe: The Church’s
Witness and Natural Theology [2001]. Chapter 5, “Reinhold Niebuhr’s
Natural Theology,” is a vigorous critique of Niebuhr.
Feb 8
Reading Week
Feb 15
John Howard Yoder and the Church as Politics
Read: John Howard Yoder, The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel
[1984], 1-62, 80-122,135-195 and Tyco Packet #4.
See also:
Yoder, The Politics of Jesus, 2nd ed. [1994]
Yoder, The Christian Witness to the State [1964]
Yoder, For the Nations: Essays Public and Evangelical [1997]
Yoder, Glen H. Stassen, and D. M. Yeager, Authentic Transformation:
A New Vision of Christ and Culture [1996], esp. pp. 31-90. A critique
of H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture [1951].
Craig A. Carter, The Politics of the Cross: The Theology and Social
Ethics of John Howard Yoder [2001].
The Wisdom of the Cross: Essays in Honor of John Howard Yoder,
eds. Stanley Hauerwas, Chris K. Huebner, Harry J. Huebner, and Mark Theissen
Nation [1999].
Feb 22
Stanley Hauerwas and the Critique of Liberal Christianity and Politics
Read: Stanley Hauerwas, After Christendom? and Tyco Packet #5.
See also:
Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics [1983]
The Hauerwas Reader: Stanley Hauerwas, eds. John Berkman and
Michael Cartwright [2001]. An excellent collection from Hauerwas’
extraordinary range of writings over three decades, containing an excellent
bibliography.
Arne Rasmusson, The Church as Polis: From Political Theology to Theological
Politics as Exemplified by Jürgen Moltmann and Stanley Hauerwas
[1995]. An extensive and insightful examination and comparison of Moltmann
and Hauerwas.
God, Truth, and Witness: Engaging Stanley Hauerwas, eds. L. Gregory
Jones, Reinhold Hütter, and C. Rosalee Velloso Ewell [2005]. An excellent
set of discerning essays on Hauerwas.
Mar 1
Oliver O’Donovan’s Political Theology
Read: Oliver O’Donovan, The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering
the Roots of Political Theology [1996], pp. 1-29, 120-288.
See also:
O’Donovan, The Just War Revisited [2003].
O’Donovan, The Ways of Judgment [2005].
O’Donovan and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan, Bonds of Imperfection:
Christian Politics, Past and Present, [2004].
A Royal Priesthood? The Use of the Bible Ethically and Politically:
A Dialogue with Oliver O’Donovan, eds. Craig Bartholomew, Jonathan
Chaplin, Robert Song, and Al Wolters [2002]. An insightful discussion
of O’Donovan from various angles and quite useful for those who
find O’Donovan difficult and opaque.
Mar 8, 15 Spring
Recess
Mar 22
Roman Catholic Social Teachings, America, and Democracy
Read: Charles E. Curran, Catholic Social Teachings 1897-Present
[2002], pp. 1-17, 137-246.
See also:
Tyco Packet #6: Centesimus Annus [1991] and George Weigel, “Papacy
and Power” in First Things, Feb 2001, pp. 18-25 and Richard
John Neuhaus, “Our American Babylon” in First Things,
Dec 2005, pp. 23-28.
Documents of Vatican II, ed. Walter M. Abbott, trans. Joseph
Gallagher [1966].
Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations,
ed. Kenneth R. Himes [2004].
George Weigel, Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy
[1989] and Freedom and Its Discontents: Catholicism Confronts Modernity
[1991] and Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II [1999].
George Weigel and Robert Royal, eds., Century of Catholic Social Thought
[1991] and Building the Free Society: Democracy, Capitalism,
and Catholic Social Teaching [1993].
Michael Novak, The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
[1993]. Novak is the leading Catholic apologist for democratic capitalism.
Jean Porter, Natural and Divine Law: Reclaiming the Tradition for
Christian Ethics [1999] and Nature as Reason: A Thomistic Theory
of the Natural Law [2005].
Mar 29
Another Roman Catholic Voice
Read: William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics,
and the Body of Christ, [1998], 1-20, 121-281.
See also:
Cavanaugh, Theopolitical Imagination: Discovering the Liturgy as a
Political Act in an Age of Global Consumerism [2002].
Cavanaugh, “Church” in BCPT, 393-406.
Apr 5
Latin American Liberation Theology, Capitalism, and the Church
Read: Daniel M. Bell Jr., Liberation Theology After the End of History
[2001], pp. 1-8, 42-51, 85-195.
See also:
Bell, “State and Civil Society” in BCPT, 423-438.
John Milbank, Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason
[1990]. Highly influential book that eventuates into the movement calling
itself ‘radical orthodoxy.’
D. Stephen Long, Divine Economy: Theology and the Market [2000].
An engaging critique of the neo-conservative and neo-liberal theological
defense of capitalism. Influenced by the ‘radical orthodoxy’
movement inspired by John Milbank.
Graham Ward, Cities of God [2000]. Similarly influenced by Milbankian
‘radical orthodoxy.’
Apr 12
Mapping Theological Beliefs and Political Judgments
and Practices
Read: Kathryn Tanner, The Politics of God: Christian Theologies and
Social Justice [1992], pp. 1-34, 75-224.
See also: Tanner, Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology [1997]
and Economy of Grace [2005].
Apr 19
Liberal Democratic Political Theory and the Public
Square
Read: Robert Audi and Nicholas Wolterstorff, Religion in the Public
Square: The Place of Religious Convictions in Political Debate [1997].
See also:
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Until Justice and Peace Embrace [1993].
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice [1971] and Political Liberalism
[1993]. Rawls is the most influential philosophical interpreter and defender
of liberal democratic political theory in our times.
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue [1981] and Whose Justice?
Which Rationality? [1988] and Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry:
Encyclopedia, Genealogy, and Tradition [1993]. Seminal work in ethical/political
theory critiquing the assumptions of much contemporary ethical and political
rationales.
Jeffrey Stout, Democracy and Tradition [2004]. A vigorous philosophical
defense, from the tradition of pragmatism, of democracy, with a stringent
critique of Hauerwas.
Cornel West, Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight against Imperialism
[2004]. A spirited defense and critique of democracy and its practice
by the foremost African-American philosopher/theologian in America.
Stephen H. Webb, American Providence: A Nation with a Mission [2004].
A passionate but problematic defense of the idea that America has a special
providential calling.
Jim Wallis, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and
the Left Doesn’t Get It [2005]. Wallis, the founder of Sojourners
magazine, calls himself a ‘Leftwing Evangelical’ and considers
this book ‘a new vision for faith and politics in America.’
Gary Hart, The Patriot: An Exhortation to Liberate America from the
Barbarians [1996], Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian
Ideal in 21st Century America [2002], God and Caesar in America:
An Essay on Religion and Politics [2005]. Former Senator from Colorado
and presidential candidate, Hart received degrees from YDS [1961] and
Yale Law School [1964].
May 3
Major Essay due
[Further bibliography, especially of biblical, historical, and contemporary
theological and philosophical resources, will also be forthcoming
as course proceeds.]
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