Radical Democracy and Political Theology

By linking radical democratic theory to a contemporary fascination with political theology, Jeffrey W. Robbins envisions the modern experience of democracy as a social, cultural, and political force which transforms the nature of sovereign power and political authority. As Alexis de Tocqueville once wrote, "The people reign over the American political world like God over the universe." In Robbins's view, this unwitting acknowledgement that democracy is the political instantiation of the death of God remains an apt observation of how modern democratic power does not rest with a sovereign authority but operates as a diffuse social force. Robbins joins his work with Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's radical conception of "network power," fashioning a political theology that captures modern democracy's social and cultural torment. This has profound implications not only for the nature of contemporary religious belief and practice but also for the reconceptualization of the proper relationship between religion and politics. Challenging the modern, liberal, and secular assumption of a neutral public space, Robbins conceives of a postsecular politics for contemporary society that inextricably links religion to the political.