The Readings from Thiel's Course on Political Theology
In a narrow sense, the term "political theology" involves the hypothesis that the categories of political institutions build on theological assumptions. An obvious case might be the premodern notion of the "divine right of kings," the derivation of monarchical authority from religious claims. Pursuing a political theology in modernity, however, poses a different challenge, given the scope of secularization. How does an inquiry into political theology make sense in the wake of Nietzsche's "death of God"? This project is close to but different from a general exploration of religion and politics, e.g. prayer in school, the Supreme Court and religious freedom and so forth. Those matters are important, as flashpoints in the secularization/anti-secularization conflict, but in this course we are after something deeper and wider. Our topic is deeper in the sense that we are exploring formative theological structures that underpin dimensions of social and intellectual life, whether or not the manifest content appears to have a religious character. We are in other words looking for latent theology, not necessarily a manifest theme. And our topic is wider because we will examine, each week, different arenas--not only politics in the sense of state structures--and ask about putative theological foundations.
History
Karl Löwith – Meaning in History
Leo Strauss – On Plato’s Republic, The City and Man (paragraphs 1-13)
Eric Voegelin – The New Science of Politics Chapters 4 & 5
Carl Schmitt – Three Possibilities for a Christian Conception of History
Carl Schmitt – Land and Sea
Book of Daniel, Chapters 2, 7-12
Philosophy
Leo Strauss – What Is Political Philosophy?
Leo Strauss – Natural Right and History (pp 74-75)
Benedict XVI – Regensburg Address
Pierre Manent – Between Athens and Jerusalem
Martin Heidegger – The Self Assertion of the German University
Peter Thiel – René Girard Memorial Address
Anthropology
René Girard – Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (pp. 1-104; 141-179)
Abraham Lincoln - The Lyceum Address
Edward Creasy - The Battle of Chalons," in The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World
Sir James Frazer – The Golden Bough (Chapters 1, 2 and 24)
Psychology
René Girard – Deceit, Desire, and the Novel – “Triangular Desire”
René Girard – I See Satan Fall Like Lightning – “Satan” (pp. 32-46)
Harry Jaffa – The Limits of Politics: An Interpretation of King Lear Act I, scene i”
William Shakespeare – King Lear (Act I, scene i)
Tom Wolfe – Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died
The Family
Mary Eberstadt – How the West Really Lost God (pp 59-124)
Ross Douthat – The Decadent Society Chapter 2 – “Sterility”
R.J. Rushdoony – The Kindergarten: Model for a New Eden
R.J. Rushdoony – “John Dewey’s New Jerusalem – ‘The Great Community’”
Thomas Malthus – An Essay on Population (Chapter 18)
Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol
Wealth
Henry George – Progress and Poverty
Max Weber – The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism
James Buchan – Frozen Desire Chapter 2: “Thirty Pieces of Silver”
Luke Muehlhauser – Effective Altruism as I See It
Warren Buffett – Statement on Taxation
Richard Kirkland Jr. – Should You Leave It All to the Children?
Der Spiegel – German Millionaires Criticize Gates’ ‘Giving Pledge’
The State
Carl Schmitt – Political Theology
Carl Schmitt – Concept of the Political
Adrian Vermeule – A Christian Strategy
World Order
Alexandre Kojève – Tyranny and Wisdom
Leo Strauss – Restatement on Xenophon’s Hiero
Wendell Wilkie, One World (1943): Chapter 4, and Chapter 7
Cosmology
Leo Strauss – “Niccolo Machiavelli”
Niccolo Machiavelli – Discourses on Livy
Book I Preface & chs. 4, 10, 26, 39
Book II Preface & chs. 1, 5
Book III ch. 6
Niccolo Machiavelli – The Prince, Chapter 19 (“Of Avoiding Contempt and Hatred”)
Peter Thiel – You Are Not a Lottery Ticket (Zero to One ch. 6)
René Descartes – Meditations 1 & 2
John Milton – Paradise Lost Book 1, II.
James Burnham – The Machiavellians (pp 1-24)
The Coen Brothers – No Country for Old Men
Apocalypse
Francis Bacon — The New Atlantis
Vladimir Solovyov – Short Story of the Antichrist
René Girard – Hamlet’s Dull Revenge
Nick Bostrom – The Vulnerable World Hypothesis