WHAT IS POLITICAL THEOLOGY?

Andrew Benjamin (Monash University)

Thursday 17 November 2016

18:00-19:30 

Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre

Goldsmiths, University of London

The world figures within any political theology. What has altered and thus what has to be drawn into any thinking of a political theology is a shift in the world’s presence. A transformation of the world remains the project of a political theology. And yet, this claim has become complicated. It is equally true, now, that world itself is in a process of change; a process that is an opening to the world’s destruction. However, this destruction is not the one that figures within the conventions of a political theology. On the contrary, it is form of destruction that is inextricably tied to the presence of catastrophic climate change as a genuine possibility. Hence the question that has to emerge – given the centrality of the world within any thinking of a political theology – concerns the impact of this modality of destruction on political theology as a mode of thought.

Andrew Benjamin is a thinker and writer of international standing with a vast body of work on painting, architecture, philosophy and aesthetics. During his career, Andrew has held high-profile posts at Warwick University in the UK, and Monash University, Australia. His recent publications include: Of Jews and Animals, Commonality Place and Judgement: Continental Philosophy and the Ancient Greeks and Architectural Projections.