The Conspiracy of the Good: Proclus’ Theodicy qua Political Theological Paradigm

Giorgio Agamben, Dotan Leshem and Adam Kotsko have sought Christian origins of neoliberal governance. By developing a genealogical project, they have overlooked the theodicy of the Neoplatonist Proclus, which provides a more robust analogy to the neoliberal order than any Christian system. My paper...

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Détails bibliographiques
Publié dans:Political theology
Auteur principal: Vargas, Antonio (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2020]
Dans: Political theology
Année: 2020, Volume: 21, Numéro: 8, Pages: 723-737
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Proclus, Diadochus 412-485 / Théodicée / Néolibéralisme / Théologie politique
RelBib Classification:FD Théologie contextuelle
NBC Dieu
NCE Éthique des affaires
TB Antiquité
ZC Politique en général
Sujets non-standardisés:B Proclus
B Demons
B Theodicy
B Agamben
B Political Theology
B Neoliberalism
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Résumé:Giorgio Agamben, Dotan Leshem and Adam Kotsko have sought Christian origins of neoliberal governance. By developing a genealogical project, they have overlooked the theodicy of the Neoplatonist Proclus, which provides a more robust analogy to the neoliberal order than any Christian system. My paper develops Proclus’ theodicy as a political theological paradigm, with special attention to the divine engineering of vice by the gods in his system. In so doing, I advocate for an investigation based on analogy, rather than genealogy, and also open to a realist metaphysics. I argue that Proclus’ theodicy openly exhibits four key features of neoliberalism emphasized by Agamben, Leshem and Kotsko (governmentality, glory, expansion and demonization) and that it does so without the need for any suspicious readings of the texts or their reception. In conclusion, by closely examining an influential Hellenic Neoplatonist, I shed light on the unacknowledged polytheistic dimensions of the neoliberal world.
ISSN:1743-1719
Contient:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2020.1831742