Populismus – Gefahr oder hilfreiches Korrektiv für die gegenwärtige Demokratie?

ZusammenfassungMit gegenwärtigen Tendenzen zur Postdemokratie geht eine Zunahme an Populismus einher. Die dunklen Seiten des Populismus stehen uns heute in Europa besonders deutlich vor Augen, wenn wir auf seine Neigung zur Jagd auf Sündenböcke blicken, die sich insbesondere in Form einer Islamfeindlichkeit zeigt. Gleichzeitig betonen Vertreter einer radikalen Demokratie die Wichtigkeit von Gleichheit und Volkssouveränität als populistische Quelle zur Revitalisierung der Demokratie. Diese Ambivalenz des Populismus verweist sowohl auf rechtsstaatliche Institutionen als auch auf die politische Kultur als Voraussetzungen einer menschengerechten Demokratie. Beispielhaft werden im Blick auf die politische Kultur die Gewaltfreiheit und die Geschwisterlichkeit als wichtige politische Tugenden hervorgehoben.AbstractThe current tendencies towards post-democracy are accompanied by an increase of populism. The dark side of populism is clearly visible in contemporary Europe if we look at its leanings towards scapegoating and its islamophobic agitations. At the same time, however, representatives of a radical form of democracy are emphasizingthe importance of equality and sovereignty of the people as populist sources to revitalize democracy. This ambivalence of populism requires the constitutional institutions as well as a certain political culture as preconditions for a human democracy. Concerning political culture, the article discusses the political virtues of non-violence and fraternalism as examples

Collective Identity and Christianity: Europe between Nationalism and an Open Patriotism

Times of crisis push human beings, a clannish creature, to retreat into closed societies. Anthropologically, this can be explained with concepts such as pseudospeciation, group narcissism, or parochial altruism. Politically, the preference for closed societies results in our modern world in nationalism or imperialism. Henri Bergson’s distinction between static and dynamic religion shows which type of religion promotes such tendencies of closure and which type can facilitate the path toward open society. Bergson rejected nationalism and imperialism and opted for an open patriotism with its special relation to dynamic religion. Dynamic religion relativizes political institutions such as the state and results today in an option for civil society as the proper space where religions can and must contribute to its ethical development. It aligns more easily with a counter-state nationhood than with a state-framed nationalism. Whereas Bergson saw in Christianity the culmination of dynamic religion, a closer look shows that it can be found in all post-Axial religions. Martin Buber, Mohandas Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Abul Kalam Azad, and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan exemplify this claim. After World War II, Catholic thinkers such as Jacques Maritain or Robert Schuman by partly following Bergson chose patriotism over nationalism and helped to create the European Union. Today, however, a growing nationalism in Europe forces religious communities to strengthen dynamic religion in their own traditions to contribute to a social culture that helps to overcome nationalist closures. The final part provides a positive example by referring to the fraternal Catholic modernity as it culminates today in Pope Francis’ call for fraternity and his polyhedric model of globalization that connects local identity with universal concerns

Gandhi’s Militant Nonviolence in the Light of Girard’s Mimetic Anthropology

Nuclear rivalry, as well as terrorism and the war against terror, exemplify the dangerous escalation of violence that is threatening our world. Gandhi’s militant nonviolence offers a possible alternative that avoids a complacent indifference toward injustice as well as the imitation of violence that leads to its escalation. The French-American cultural anthropologist René Girard discovered mimetic rivalries as one of the main roots of human conflicts, and also highlighted the contagious nature of violence. This article shows that Gandhi shares these basic insights of Girard’s anthropology, which increases the plausibility of his plea for nonviolence. Reading Gandhi with Girard also complements Girard’s mimetic theory by offering an active practice of nonviolence as a response to violent threats, and by broadening the scope of its religious outreach. Gandhi’s reading of the Sermon on Mount not only renounces violence and retaliation like Girard but also underlines the need to actively break with evil. Both Gandhi and Girard also address the religious preconditions of nonviolent action by underlining the need to prefer godly over worldly pursuits, and to overcome the fear of death by God’s grace. This congruence shows that Girard’s anthropology is valid beyond its usual affinity with Judaism and Christianity

Ist das Theologische vermeidbar? Politische Theologie von Thomas Hobbes bis in unsere Gegenwart

Ausgangspunkt meiner Überlegungen ist Mark Lillas systematische Gegenüberstellung von politischer Philosophie und politischer Theologie, die dieser im indirekten Anschluss an Heinrich Meier zum hermeneutischen Schlüssel des Verhältnisses von Religion und Politik in der westlichen Welt erklärt. Während Lilla unter politischer Theologie die Gestaltung der politischen Ordnung einer Gesellschaft gemäß einer göttlichen Autorität versteht, sieht er in der neuen politischen Philosophie – in klarer D..

Einleitung

Der amerikanische Ideenhistoriker und Essayist Mark Lilla, der sich wiederholt mit der europäischen Geistesgeschichte befasst hat, charakterisiert in seinem international viel diskutierten Buch The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (2007) die westliche Moderne als eine Welt, in der die Politische Theologie durch die Politische Philosophie ersetzt worden sei. Mit „Politischer Theologie“ bezeichnet Lilla Lehren, die die Ausübung politischer Autorität aus einer religiösen Of..

Politische Philosophie vs. Politische Theologie?

"The publications of the interdisciplinary and internationally networked Research Platform “World Order – Religion – Violence” seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between religion, politics and violence. It therefore deals especially with the return of religious themes and symbols into politics, with the analysis of the link between political theory and religion, and finally with the critical discussion of the secularization thesis. At the centre of the research are questions concerning the causes of violent conflict, the possibilities for a just world order and the conditions for peaceful coexistence on a local, regional, national and international/worldwide scale between communities in the face of divergent religious and ideological convictions. Its task is to initiate and coordinate thematically related research-efforts from various disciplinary backgrounds at the University of Innsbruck. It creates a network between departments, research-teams and single researchers working on topics of religion, politics and violence. The overall aim of the research platform World Order-Religion-Violence is to promote excellence in social and human science research on religion and politics at the University of Innsbruck and to guarantee the diffusion of this particular competence on a national and international level.

Aufgeklärte Apokalyptik: Religion, Gewalt und Frieden im Zeitalter der Globalisierung

"The publications of the interdisciplinary and internationally networked Research Platform “World Order – Religion – Violence” seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between religion, politics and violence. It therefore deals especially with the return of religious themes and symbols into politics, with the analysis of the link between political theory and religion, and finally with the critical discussion of the secularization thesis. At the centre of the research are questions concerning the causes of violent conflict, the possibilities for a just world order and the conditions for peaceful coexistence on a local, regional, national and international/worldwide scale between communities in the face of divergent religious and ideological convictions. Its task is to initiate and coordinate thematically related research-efforts from various disciplinary backgrounds at the University of Innsbruck. It creates a network between departments, research-teams and single researchers working on topics of religion, politics and violence. The overall aim of the research platform World Order-Religion-Violence is to promote excellence in social and human science research on religion and politics at the University of Innsbruck and to guarantee the diffusion of this particular competence on a national and international level.

Westliche Moderne, Christentum und Islam

"The publications of the interdisciplinary and internationally networked Research Platform “World Order – Religion – Violence” seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between religion, politics and violence. It therefore deals especially with the return of religious themes and symbols into politics, with the analysis of the link between political theory and religion, and finally with the critical discussion of the secularization thesis. At the centre of the research are questions concerning the causes of violent conflict, the possibilities for a just world order and the conditions for peaceful coexistence on a local, regional, national and international/worldwide scale between communities in the face of divergent religious and ideological convictions. Its task is to initiate and coordinate thematically related research-efforts from various disciplinary backgrounds at the University of Innsbruck. It creates a network between departments, research-teams and single researchers working on topics of religion, politics and violence. The overall aim of the research platform World Order-Religion-Violence is to promote excellence in social and human science research on religion and politics at the University of Innsbruck and to guarantee the diffusion of this particular competence on a national and international level.