political theology
Faith meets governance
Political theology examines the relationship between religious concepts and political authority.
It asks how theological ideas—God's sovereignty, divine law, salvation, apocalypse—shape or mirror political structures and legitimacy.
The term gained currency through Carl Schmitt's claim that modern political concepts are secularized theological ones: the sovereign who declares a state of emergency parallels an omnipotent God.
Political theology spans religious justifications for state power, theocratic governance, and critiques of how politics borrows religion's vocabulary and emotional force.
- divine rightGod-granted ruling authority
- theocracyRule by religious authority
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
- body politicNation as unified organism
- eschatologyStudy of ultimate destiny
render unto Caesar · secularization · religious nationalism · kingdom of God · natural law · Calvinism · Christendom · chosen people · transcendence · legitimacy · messianic · human rights advocacy · just war · apocalyptic · redemption · sacred · martyrdom · dominion
- church-statechurch-state, separation, church-state separation, establishment clause, religious accommodation
- contextual theologyindigenization, contextualization, enculturation, praxis, marginalized voices
- Modern Theologyneo-orthodoxy, Barth, Schleiermacher, Gutierrez, Whitehead
- theocracytheocracy, theocrat, hierocracy, caliphate, Vatican City
- Shia IslamAli, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Hussein, Hussain, imam
- theologyecclesiology, eschatology, Christology, God, dogmatics
political theologysecularism
Separation of faith, state
disenchantment · technocracy · secular humanism · demythologization · managerialism
political theologyrealpolitik
Politics prioritizing practicality over ethics
political realism · political economy · game theory · technocracy