Lines in the Innumerable: Enmity, Exceptionalism and Entanglement

This article originated from the Literature and Theology Annual Lecture, as the keynote address of the 18th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture, held at the University of Glasgow, 9-11 September 2016. The lecture speaks both to the theme of the confe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Literature and theology
Main Author: Keller, Catherine 1953- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press [2018]
In: Literature and theology
RelBib Classification:CG Christianity and Politics
CH Christianity and Society
KBQ North America
NCA Ethics
TK Recent history
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Summary:This article originated from the Literature and Theology Annual Lecture, as the keynote address of the 18th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture, held at the University of Glasgow, 9-11 September 2016. The lecture speaks both to the theme of the conference-'Lines in Sand: Borders, Conflicts and Transitions'-and to the (theo)political moment of the time of its delivery: the UK referendum vote to leave the European Union, the 2016 US presidential campaign, and the North Dakota pipeline protests. The piece considers how the 'line in the sand' marks difference, even ethical demarcation, but it retains its granular multiplicity; when it hardens it into the borderline between us and them, 'friend vs. foe', a recognisable politics is in play, indeed a political theology of hardline power. How does a democratizing multiplicity morph into the Schmittian sovereignty of the exception? Do US and white exceptionalisms work in tandem with a theology of human, and indeed Christian, exceptionalism? How in a perilous time might a theology of entangled difference resist the political theology of the hard line?
ISSN:1477-4623
Contains:Enthalten in: Literature and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frx035