Messianic Political Theology And Diaspora Ethics [Hardcover]

Political theology as a normative discourse has been controversial not only for secular political philosophers who are especially suspicious of messianic claims but also for Jewish and Christian thinkers who differ widely on its meaning. These essays mount an argument for a Messianic Political Theology rooted in an interpretation of biblical (especially Pauline), Augustinian, and Radical Reformation readings of messianism as a thoroughly political and theological vision that gives rise to what the author calls Diaspora Ethics. In conversation also with Platonic, Jewish, and Continental thinkers, Kroeker argues for an exilic practice of political ethics in which the secular is built up theologically from below in the form of public service that flows from messianic political worship. Such a weak messianic power practiced by the messianic body inhabits an apocalyptic political economy in which the mystery of love and the mystery of evil are agonistically unveiled together in the power of the cross--not as an instrument of domination but in the form of the servant. This is not simply a matter of pacifism but of a messianic posture rooted in the renunciation of possessive desire that pertains to all aspects of everyday human life in the household (oikos), the academy, and the polis. Kroeker pursues a style of radical theological reflection at once intellectually sophisticated and spiritually profound: there is much to learn here of the difficult and patient labor of living out a Christian particularity that, in love and dispossession, foreswears both isolation from and conformity with our nihilistic age for the sake of a better gospel witness. These essays represent an invaluable Anabaptist contribution to contemporary political theology and ethics. --Philip G. Ziegler, King's College, University of Aberdeen For those of us who have been eagerly anticipating a synthetic expression of Travis Kroeker's mature vision, this compelling volume is a rlC%