abstract

What Makes Theology "Political"?
"Come Let us Reason Together"

D. Stephen Long
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

What makes theology political? Before answering the question if Christian ethics is a public theology, an answer to this question is necessary. Few theological ethicists these days would claim their work is "apolitical," yet theologians regularly accuse others of producing such a theology. In fact types of theology have emerged based on the assumption that their difference from other theologies is their political cast. Liberation and public theologies, different in many respects, would not make sense without the common tacit background assumption that other theologies fail to be political or at least adequately political and their work corrects this defect. These "political" theologies often position other theologies via this tacit background assumptions. They accomplish this by categorizing the apolitical or inadequately political theologies as "church" theology, sectarian, fideist or ideological. The debate among these various theologies has come to a stalemate, largely, I shall argue, because public and liberation theologies share a common error -- apodictic certainty as to what constitutes "politics." They refuse to reason with those who do not share their first premise. This prevents a common practical reasoning that finally renders many liberation and public theologies sectarian and apolitical. In this essay I will draw on Charles Taylor's conception of practical ad hominem arguments to show why public and liberation theologies cannot finally produce theology or politics and how we might move beyond the current impasse.