Abstract
While it is clear from Eggemeier’s thoroughness that he has grappled with the ideas that gave rise to this book for some time, it could not come at a more critical moment for Christianity in the United States. One does not have to be a political theologian to benefit from his effective efforts to map a complicated—and evolving—landscape of political theory on the realities of neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and radical democracy; or to benefit from his analysis of why Christian contributions are critical to the unfolding project of radical democracy and what those contributions might be.
In the first third of the book, E. methodically presents the central ideas of his foundational political theorists, some proponents, but most of them critics, of neoliberalism and neo-conservatism—David Harvey, Wendy Brown, Robert Kagan, Samuel Huntingdon—noting the historical roots, internal diversity of thought within and among the schools to which they belong, and contemporary manifestations of their theories. He does so without overwhelming the reader or losing sight of the urgent questions that animate his point, using the work of William Connolly and Melinda Cooper, for whom both neoliberalism and neoconservatism are bi-partisan efforts that continue to support “a model of the state rooted in the defense of American exceptionalism and the commitment to the project of American hegemony” (31). From there he turns to the work of a variety of political theorists—primarily Wendy Brown, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Chantal Mouffe, and Sheldon Wolin—who propose radical democracy as a solution to the imperialism of the contemporary moment. Again, by presenting a diversity of thought among these theorists, E. effectively sets the stage for five Christian thinkers who envision Christian theology and Christians serving the task of rescuing democracy—rule by the people—from the coalescing forces of liberalism and capitalism.
In the remaining chapters he explores how four different aspects of the Christian tradition, captured in the corpus of five distinct thinkers, offer particular diagnoses of neoliberalism, depending upon what each sees as the most pressing source of injustice, as well as what each might offer to the project of radical democracy based on their respective views of the good life: the prophetic Black tradition’s concerns about racism via Cornel West’s diagnosis of post-Constantinian Christianity and his solution of a prophetic-pragmatic politics; Christian feminism’s concerns about the oppression of wo/men via Elisabeth Shüssler-Fiorenza’s notion of neoliberal kyriarchy and her vision of a transnational ekklesia of women where egalitarian alternatives can be worked out; liberation theology’s diagnosis of American economic imperialism of the global south via Jesuits Ignacio Ellacuría and Jon Sobrino and their hope in the prophetic and utopian ideal of a “civilization of poverty”; and, finally, “peaceable theology’s” concern with Christianity’s cozy relationship with militarism via Stanley Hauerwas and his ideas about the viability of an ethics of nonviolence for resisting empire.
E. meticulously reviews the pertinent texts in these five thinkers’ respective corpuses, as well as direct and indirect engagements they have had with each others’ ideas, in order to offer a veritable menu of options for Christian theologians and communities seeking to be engaged in the critical work of rescuing democracy. He avoids holding these figures and their respective corpus up as paradigms, since he identifies other thinkers on which either these five figures’ own ideas are built or who help bridge the gap between their frameworks and contemporary discourse. Nor does he play favorites. He highlights the criticisms and gaps in their thinking when it comes to our particular moment in the history of democracy.
His examination of this political and theological landscape surfaces a number of insights and sensibilities. E. reveals the way in which Christianity is at once indispensable for radical democracy and very much part of the “political assemblages” (34) of the neoliberal and neo-conservative bi-partisan move to the right. He also offers a renewed purpose in reflecting and acting on the diverse and viable impulses of the Jesus movement when it comes to the key ingredients of an effective radical democracy: “egalitarianism, peace, and justice” (176).
The reader can appreciate the uncertainty he faced in publishing his work before the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and in the midst of a global pandemic, both of which exposed American imperialism’s ongoing physical harm to individual bodies and the body politic. Rather than sidestep that anxiety, E. implicitly presents it as a disruptive mindset needed to avoid dismissing the threats to the American political project, particularly those posed by Christianity, as well as the options available to Christians when it comes to mounting an effective response. If James Baldwin is correct in saying that nothing that is not faced can be changed, then in this book E. holds up a mirror to Christian theology that is as critical as it is constructive.