University of Kent, KLS

Law, politics and theology are historically inextricably intertwined, as much so today as before, despite modernity’s claims to secularization. Contemporary constitutions, institutions, political and legal practices and texts all bear the traces of multiple and conflicting theological inheritances. Political theology names this conjunction. In recent years, it has been a site of rich comparative and interdisciplinary exploration, across societies, cultures, religions, periods and academic fields. The workshop aims to advance research into the long-term genesis of Western institutions as reflected in and illuminated by the conundrums of political theology, interrogating the significance of juridification as a core process in Western institutional history, along with the resistances that have accompanied it.

Please find the full programme here

Speakers: Agata Bielik-Robson (Jewish Studies, Theology & Religious Studies, University of Nottingham); Yvonne Sherwood (Religious Studies, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent); Marinos Diamantides (Birkbeck Law School, University of London CRIPT); Anton Schütz (Birkbeck Law School, University of London, CRIPT); Gil Anidjar (Departments of Religion, the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies [MESAAS], and the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society [ICLS] Columbia University); John Ackerman (Kent Law School, University of Kent, CRIPT); Piyel Haldar(Birkbeck Law School, University of London, CRIPT).