Theology and World Order

It would be naive to consider the question of global political order without engaging in debates about theology. Not only has it become clear that religious conflicts drive political ones, the very attempt to move “beyond” religion must be understood in terms of its theological meaning. The postsecular turn has not meant a return to religion so much as a realization that secularization was never a turn away from religion in the first place but rather itself a specific theological alternative among many. Accordingly, if our deepest political conflicts arise as consequences of theological disputes, we must address theology directly in order to get to the roots of major conflicts. In this issue of Telos, we engage in this discussion by considering how conceptions of world order arise from specific theologies.

Introduction
David Pan

On Religious Nihilism
Willem Styfhals

Womenless Space: The Islamist Exclusion of Women from Public Space
Saladdin Ahmed

Exploring the Link between Islamic Doctrines and Development
Rumy Hasan

Managing Religious Diversity in Italy
Ankita Dutta

Periodization and Providence: Time and Eternity between Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Augustine’s Confessions
Maxwell Kennel

Freud on Ambiguity: Judaism, Christianity, and the Reversal of Truth in Moses and Monotheism
Gilad Sharvit

The Problem of Our Law: Political Theology and the Theological-Political Problem in Giorgio Agamben and Leo Strauss
Jeffrey A. Bernstein

Kantian Democracy: Interdependence, Legitimacy, and Progress
Afsoun Afsahi

Critical Theory of the Contemporary

The New World Order of Gross Dysfunction and Guided Democracy: “Making America Great Again”
Timothy W. Luke

The Resurgence of Great Power Politics and the Rise of the Civilizational State
Adrian Pabst

The Cultural Basis of Twenty-First-Century World Order: From World Literature to World Literatures
David Pan