Dave Barnhart's Academic Portfolio

20th Century Political Theology
3/5/2000 - Completed for Theological Ethics Exam

Instructor: David Barnhart
Semester: Fall, 1492
Location: 241 Big Hall 8:00 AM
Course Website: http://www.institution.edu/barnhart/fall/rel2223
Office Hours: MWF 10-12:00
email: dbarnhart@university. edu
Office: 322 Poslethwaite Hall
phone:777-7777

Syllabus Contents:

1) Course Information, Contents, Course Description, Course Goals
2) Course Requirements
3) Honor Policy, Required Readings, Recommended Readings
4) Course Outline, Essential Dates
5) Course Schedule

Course Description:

This course will consist of x major sections. We will move mostly chronologically, though there may be issues which will require us to time travel a bit. The first section will focus on themes carried forward from previous centuries regarding the religious critique of politics and the secular critique of religion. We will look very briefly at the Reformation, Marx's and Nietzsche's critique of religion, and the Great Awakening in America in order that we may ask the following questions: how is 20th Century political theology a continuation of past intellectual traditions, and how is it a departure from them? How do the seeds of critical theory, the human sciences, technocracy, and public ethics which were sown in the previous centuries grow in the 20th? What are the obstacles and opportunities presented by the separation of church and state for public theology?

In the next section we will focus on industrialization, unionization, and the rapid technological advances at the beginning of the century, and the development of the social gospel movement in America. We will also look across the Atlantic to the formation of the Frankfurt School. We will also examine how the development of the social sciences, especially psychology and sociology, push theology in new directions. After that, we will turn toward World War Two as a key crisis in theological and humanistic thought. Here we will look especially hard at Reinhold Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We will move on to examine the role of theology in the Civil Rights Movement, liberation movements, and feminist critiques of culture and history. Toward the end of the course, we will look specifically at the role of theology in public discourse by examining Stanley Hauerwas, Jurgen Moltmann, Peter Hodgson, Malcolm Diamond, Victor Anderson, and Jean Elshtain. Students will be expected to take a position on the role of theology in public life and defend it.

Course Goals:

Explore the history and historical roots of political theology in the 20th century
Critically examine the way religious and secular discourses critique each other
Apply those critiques to specific issues such as multiculturalism, economics, and sex and gender politics.
Formulate a personal position on the role of theology in public life
Practice public and civil discourse in an academic setting

Requirements:

Individual performance will be evaluated by the following criteria.

Class participation (15%) - Attendance and active engagement in discussion are essential parts of this class. Please let me know ahead of time if you are going to miss class. Since the class structure will usually focus on a short lecture followed by discussion of the lecture and/or the readings, please come to class having done the assigned readings.

Two mid-length papers (30%) - Two 5 -page papers which will choose a topic or theologian covered in either the first or the second part of class. Papers will explain the topic or theologian chosen and describe how or where he/she/it fits in the broader picture of political theology through time.

One book review (15%) - As part of your research for your final paper/presentation, pick one book to thoroughly read and review. This will be a 4 to 5-page paper which you will share with the rest of the class. You may pick one of the books from the recommended list, or choose a book on reserve in the library. You may also clear a book of your own choosing with me prior to writing the review.

Presentation and paper (20% + 20%) - You will choose a particular political issue and do a theological examination of it. Part of what you will need to consider as you put together this project is who is your audience? Are you speaking to the church or to society? Will you be using theological or secular language? Presentations should last 10 - 15 minutes and allow 10-15 minutes of discussion and question and answer. The object of this assignment is to formulate and stand by a political/theological point of view. It is not a debate where you are simply trying to prove a point, but you should come ready to engage in critical discussion.

The paper will be in two parts - a six or seven-page part in which you state the argument you make in your presentation, and a four- to five-page part in which you state your reasons for 1) choosing this particular issue, 2) presenting it the way you did, and 3) using the kind of language you do. Keep in mind, the presentation is not simply a reading of your paper. You are practicing public theology.

Honor System and Citing Research:

The institutional policy of the honor code will be strictly followed. Please cite all sources in your final paper by either footnoting or using professional standards (MLA, APA, etc.) The two short papers may use internal citation.

Required Readings:

Victor Anderson. Pragmatic Theology.
James Cone. God of the Oppressed.
Kaufmann, Walter, ed. The Portable Nietzsche.
Jürgen Moltmann. Theology of Hope.
Reinhold Niebuhr. Moral Man and Immoral Society. Handouts from The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr.
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Handouts from Augustine's City of God, Luther, Wesley's Sermons, Whitfield sermon
Handouts from Marx's The Jewish Question. Walter Raushcenbusch A Theology for the Social Order
Handouts from Martin Luther King, Jr., Stanley Hauerwas, Peter Hodgson, Jean Elshtain.

Recommended Readings:

Andrew Arato and Eike Gebhardt. The Essential Frankfurt School Reader.
Reinhold Niebuhr. An Interpretation of Christian Ethics.
H. Richard Niebuhr correspondence?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Ethics.

Outline of the Course:

Week I. Introduction - precedents for 20th Century Political Theology
Begin reading first handouts

A. Early Christianity and Augustine
B. Reformation Christianity
C. The Great Awakening in America

Week II. Industrialization and its Discontents
Assigned readings from Nietzsche, Marx handout

A. Nietzsche
B. Marx
C. Freud

Week III. The Social Gospel in America
Rauschenbusch handout, Begin MM&IS

A. The Social Gospel Movement
B. The Early Niebuhr
C. The Later Niebuhr

Week IV. Across the Atlantic - the Development of Critical Theory
Finish MM&IS

A. The Frankfurt School
B. Marcuse to Adorno
C. Habermas

Week V. World War 2 - Heroes and Villains
Begin GOTO - First paper due

A. Niebuhr revisited
B. Bonhoeffer
C. Tillich and Barth

Week VI. The Theology of Race
Finish GOTO

A. Martin Luther King, Jr.
B. James Cone
C. Power and Right: the discourse of race and liberation

Week VII. Feminist and Womanist critiques of Religion
Begin reading TOH

Week VIII. Hermeneutics, History, and Culture
Continue reading TOH - Second paper due

A. The problem of history
B. The Gadamer-Habermas debate
C. Moltmann, hermeneutics, and theology

Week IX. The church and tradition
Finish reading TOH

A. Moltmann and eschatology
B. Hauerwas and Barth
C. Hauerwas part 2

Week X. Pragmatic theology
Begin reading Pragmatic Theology and last set of handouts - Book review due

A. Anderson and Habermas
B. Anderson contra Hauerwas
C. Presentations begin

Week XI-XIII Presentations

Week XIV. Wrap up - Final papers due

A. Return to Augustine's City of God
B. Discussion of Rights and Goods
C. Hannah Arendt and Private vs. Public
D. Conclusion