S. Sayyid
Professor of Social Theory and Decolonial Thought
University of Leeds
'Liberation Theology and the Temptation of Politics’
The relationship between religion and politics is often considered to be an illegitimate one. Religion is corrupted by politics, and politics is made inflexible by religion.The association between the two is mutually destructive as it undermines their distinct qualities. Keeping politics out of religion is considered to be one of the outstanding achievements of the European Enlightenment. In the long struggle beginning with the Reformation and consolidated in subsequent centuries, the role of the Christianity in large parts of Europe came to be redefined as properly limited to the private sphere. These limitations were continually undermined in various ways, some formal and some informal, but an ideal was created in which the religious temperament was something that was best domesticated. This domestication was contrasted with other forms of religious experience which continued to play what was considered to be an excessive role in public life. In particular, Muslim resistance to the Western colonial encroachments was often seen as the work of ‘Mad Mullahs’ and the fanaticism of the Muslim faith. Many commentators see the joining of what the Enlightenment had cast asunder as a sign of troubled times. The fusing of religion and politics is the source of much confusion that seems to be characteristic of the current conjuncture. This fusion between politics and faith are most often given flesh by reference to categories such as fundamentalism and given cinematic and televisional representation through depictions of various Muslim iterations of politics, supposedly found in acts of graphic violence. Violence in the name of God demonstrates the horror of religion and politics coming together just like it did in times of the wars of Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In contrast to this familiar narrative, in this paper, I explore the flip-side of the belief in the necessity of separating politics and religion by focusing on the idea of liberation theory in a register that is not Christian.
Professor of Social Theory and Decolonial Thought
University of Leeds
'Liberation Theology and the Temptation of Politics’
The relationship between religion and politics is often considered to be an illegitimate one. Religion is corrupted by politics, and politics is made inflexible by religion.The association between the two is mutually destructive as it undermines their distinct qualities. Keeping politics out of religion is considered to be one of the outstanding achievements of the European Enlightenment. In the long struggle beginning with the Reformation and consolidated in subsequent centuries, the role of the Christianity in large parts of Europe came to be redefined as properly limited to the private sphere. These limitations were continually undermined in various ways, some formal and some informal, but an ideal was created in which the religious temperament was something that was best domesticated. This domestication was contrasted with other forms of religious experience which continued to play what was considered to be an excessive role in public life. In particular, Muslim resistance to the Western colonial encroachments was often seen as the work of ‘Mad Mullahs’ and the fanaticism of the Muslim faith. Many commentators see the joining of what the Enlightenment had cast asunder as a sign of troubled times. The fusing of religion and politics is the source of much confusion that seems to be characteristic of the current conjuncture. This fusion between politics and faith are most often given flesh by reference to categories such as fundamentalism and given cinematic and televisional representation through depictions of various Muslim iterations of politics, supposedly found in acts of graphic violence. Violence in the name of God demonstrates the horror of religion and politics coming together just like it did in times of the wars of Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In contrast to this familiar narrative, in this paper, I explore the flip-side of the belief in the necessity of separating politics and religion by focusing on the idea of liberation theory in a register that is not Christian.