Abstract
Jonathan Cole’s book encourages the reader to understand political reality through the lens of ‘theopolitical analysis’ (p. xxv). Aiming to give political theology a (more) prominent role in analysing the contemporary era of political discontent, Cole defines such an approach as both science and art (chapter 2). His book applies this scientific and agency-based analysis overwhelmingly and perhaps unconsciously to Protestant Christianity, claiming that such ‘political analysis’ must be shaped by the Christian point of view as proceeding from ‘the conviction that politics (however defined) is embedded within a Christian ontology’ and historical teleology (p. xxvi; emphasis original). Political theology thus becomes a Christian ‘theology of governance’ that not only analyses but also ‘acts upon the answers’ to the ‘theological questions related to governance’ (p. 18).
The book is structured around twelve more or less standalone essays which explore political theology from different trajectories. This disparate approach is inherently eclectic in nature. The reader is provided with meaningful dialogues with political theologians and philosophers on a set number of issues but given no clear rationale for why a topic is included or excluded. An impression can form that these are somewhat cherry-picked cases. After an Introduction and a description of the wider field, Cole considers the roots of the discipline in ancient Greek thought (chapter 3), as well as its more modern German influences (cf. Schmitt, chapter 4). Cole differentiates political theology from political philosophy (chapter 5) and reason from nature (chapter 6), which clears the ground to assess what we may call a heuristic impact of Trump on the discipline (chapters 7–9).
Writing as we do the weekend before the 2020 American election, we are aware of how difficult it is to reflect rigorously on still-in-motion political dynamics. Cole introduces his own concept of ‘apostolic political theology’ as a means to describe the support of American evangelicalism for Trump, who is often perceived as sent by God. The difficulty of making well-measured judgements is demonstrated when Cole perhaps inadvertently compares the present situation to pre-war Germany, where people ‘genuinely yearned for a saviour at the time Hitler rose to power’ (p. 59). Really? True, many people, including theologians, can and often do perceive a leader as sent by God, but this appears often to be the result of a complete lack of reflection from the perspective of political theology, not an example of it.
These loose and general comparisons proliferate. While there may be Calvinist roots to evangelicals’ support for Trump (chapter 8), Cole fails to demonstrate what that has to do with the discipline itself and why it is important to political theology. More importantly, by what epistemological premises can such comparisons be made? As a result, the book moves and flows as a collection of (dis)organised clusters of information chosen for unclear methodological reasons. To conclude on the point with an example, while Cole’s analysis of Calvin may explain contemporary American evangelical political theology as a type of pragmatic political realism (p. 67), it seems that Cole’s approach has little to do with the discipline as such and therefore remains unsubstantiated in analysing the contemporary political developments.
In the introductory part of the book, Cole notes that political theology has focused in the past on predominantly Western histories as well as liberal democracy (pp. 1, 7), effectively silencing other ideological streams. Yet the book does not fill the gap besides mentioning a few influential pioneers of political theology from different Christian backgrounds (p. 9). While it is true that the book is structured to offer a range of different points of view, for example on the Christian left as a contrast to American religious pragmatism that has gotten into bed with Trump, this remains a book that engages overwhelmingly with the Anglosphere when it comes to contemporary political theology. One of the few Francophone thinkers discussed at length, Jacques Ellul, died in 1994. The discussions that group him with Yoder in chapter 10 as representative of Christian anarchism or the exploration in chapter 11 of Milbank and Pabst as the vanguard of post-liberalism have obvious merit, but they are all still in closely overlapping conversations. The book is, in some ways, an attempt to query which word in ‘political theology’ takes precedence. By following the hunch at the beginning through to the end and putting these well-known voices in conversation with those from other places, some considerable insights could be discovered. The concluding chapter serves as a final defence of the political, investing it with a meaning beyond the sheer battle for power. By its conclusion, the book does achieve a significant gain: it sketches how political theology could stand as a concern separate from political science conducted by religious people.
But if Cole successfully clears ground, it is not certain that he builds on it. His aim to define and promote political theology as intellectual inquiry and practical activity is ambitious. But it often leaves the reader perplexed, if not frustrated, in at least two important ways. First, as a series of disparate essays, the book lacks the systematic approach which would allow a reader to go beyond interpreting a political order from their own point of view. Second, the author falls short in providing ‘answers’ to the important theoretical and practical questions he raises. Christian Political Theology in an Age of Discontent attempts, but ultimately fails to resolve vexed questions, creating yet more conundrums, if not confusion. The twelve chapters provide an appealing array of classical as well as contemporary views on politics from different angles of political theology, but the deployment of ‘discrete arguments’ in lieu of a sustained account means the overall impression is that the volume lacks both scientific discipline and a clear ‘method of doing a thing’ (p. 16).
To demonstrate this, we can consider the book’s approach to defining the scholarly discipline it honestly tries to promote. Having proposed political theology as a form of analysis rooted in a Christian ontology and directed towards a Christian teleology, Cole journeys through different concepts, historical questions and theories of Christian political theology without effectively substantiating his claim in contestation. He ranges in his engagement from the ambiguous Christianity of Hobbes to the theories of Carl Schmitt, and from evangelical support for Trump, to Christian anarchism, but one is left uncertain how this relates to his perspective. Revolving around these different historical and philosophical concepts, Cole argues that it is time for political theology to emerge from the philosophical jungle in which it is stuck. Yet it is not clear that his navigation is successful.
The author is not afraid to enter into conflict with great philosophers of the past, many of which seem to have failed to define political theology. In this sense, Cole’s book may represent a contribution to a long-term project to establish political theology as a discipline (and practice) of its own. However, the author falls short of engaging fully in, and providing, a scientific discussion of the theory and methodology of this yet-to-be-defined scholarly field. It is as if political theology lacked its soul as a discipline. Terms like ‘Christian ontology’ or ‘Christian teleology’ require unpacking and the loose definition of ‘political theology’ offered by the author means that we are left unsure what it means to declare it an ‘art’ (see above; pp. 18–19). Cole welcomes this definitional diversity, but can we talk about something without agreeing on the meaning and on the method of agreement? As a cluster of essays on the topic, Cole’s book does help to expand knowledge about political theology. Individually, the essays make a whole in and of themselves. Each chapter contains a thesis, a framework and putative answers. Yet, going through the various theories and examples without a rigorous overall argument and with an under-defined approach to political theology, the book demands both an intellectually curious and knowledgeable audience with experience on the issues. A reader new to political theology (or political philosophy) would find herself lost in Cole’s analysis of not only Hobbes’s Leviathan but also narratives which hold that the (out-going) American President, Donald Trump, was sent by Jesus!
Cole’s book might be useful for the next generation of scholars and practitioners wanting to address the fascinating and ever more proliferating topics related to political theology. The author brings forward a number of critical contemporary problems to be analysed through the careful eyes of political theologians. If only Cole had been more systematic in his approach. In that way he could help us uncover the theories and findings that would apply across different present-day cases and make Christian political theology ‘mature into a bona fide discipline’ (p. 9).