Kierkegaard, Statecraft and Political Theology
Kierkegaard, Statecraft and Political Theology
Description
Written against the fractured landscape of contemporary Christianity and the increasing popularity of “political theology,” Christopher B. Barnett wrestles with the question: what if Søren Kierkegaard's rejection of modern politics was not a form of spiritual quietism, but of Christian resistance?
Tracing the rise of the modern secular state, Barnett argues that Kierkegaard's refusal of “the political” anticipates a crisis now impossible to ignore. For Kierkegaard, obsessive political passion signals a theological inversion: as the state grows in importance, God is displaced. The upshot is not freedom but moral exhaustion-a society saturated with envy, despair, and groupthink.
Barnett contends that Kierkegaard's reflections on politics and the modern state find a receptive audience in a trio of twentieth-century figures: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jacques Ellul, and René Girard. Loosely gathered under the heading of “apostolical radicalism,” each of these thinkers demonstrates that the modern state organizes contemporary life through bureaucracy, technique, propaganda, and ritualized antagonism. State politics may promise meaning, identity, and moral clarity, but as the rise of political theology shows, it ultimately absorbs all aspects of life into the sphere of politics.
Kierkegaard, Statecraft and Political Theology unleashes Kierkegaard's political thought as a live provocation, drawing unexpected lines between Christian theology and praxis and our present age of social media, tribalized politics, and permanent war. Ultimately, this book challenges readers to ask whether the modern state leads towards salvation-or the apocalypse.
Accessibility Information
Additional accessibility information
- EPUB 3.0
- Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
- WCAG level AA
- WCAG v2.2 compliant
- accessibility@bloomsbury.com
Hazards
The publication contains no hazards
Support for non-visual reading
- No accessibility features offered by the reading system, device or reading software are disabled or otherwise unusable with the product
- Has alternative text descriptions for images
Visual adjustments
Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and size, spaces, as well as color of background and text)
Navigation
- Page list to go to pages from the print source version
- Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
- All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order
- Content is enhanced with ARIA roles to optimize organization and facilitate navigation
- Purposes of all links are made clear
Rich content
Language tagging provided
Table of Contents
1. The Origin and Development of the Modern State: A Survey
2. Kierkegaard's Early Critique of the State and Politics
3. Conservative Radicalism?: Political Dissent in the Wake of Kierkegaard
4. The Danger of Political Theology
Conclusion: Seeing Through the Political Illusion
Works Cited
Product details
| Published | 14 May 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 232 |
| ISBN | 9781350408555 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 10 bw illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Reviews
ONLINE RESOURCES
Bloomsbury Collections
This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.
Related Titles
