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Overcoming ‘Gnosticism’? Realism as political theology

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Paipais_2015_CRIA_Overcoming_AM.pdf (243.8Kb)
Date
2016
Author
Paipais, V.
Keywords
Political theology
Realism
Augustine
Gnosticism
Morgenthau
Niebuhr
JZ International relations
JC Political theory
BDC
R2C
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Abstract
This paper takes issue with approaches that relate realist political theology exclusively back to its Schmittian and neo-orthodox roots. While not entirely denying those influences, it argues that realist thought is more accurately described as rooted in the tensions characterizing Augustine's anti-heretic diatribes rather than taking inspiration from Schmittian political theology or the ‘Gnostic’ tendencies in Protestant neo-orthodox theology. Augustine's refutation of both the Manichaean Gnostic and the Pelagian solutions to the problem of evil gave rise to a complex understanding of the relationship between human free will and original sin based on a combination of ontological monism and ethical dualism. Building on this heritage, realists can be read as rehearsing Augustine's ambiguous gesture of overcoming Gnosticism with equally uncertain success. In responding to the modern ‘Gnostic’ challenge in terms that recognized the dialectical tension between ontological monism and ethical dualism, realists such as Morgenthau and Niebuhr should rather be seen as direct heirs of Augustine's ambivalent orthodoxy rather than Schmitt's unorthodox, semi-‘Gnostic’ Catholicism. This intellectual legacy may, then, explain their abhorrence of purist positions in politics—be they quietism, pacifism or, their opposite, political messianism—and adherence to an anti-‘Gnostic’ pragmatism grounded in the tensions of Augustinian theology.
Citation
Paipais , V 2016 , ' Overcoming ‘Gnosticism’? Realism as political theology ' , Cambridge Review of International Affairs , vol. 29 , no. 4 , pp. 1603-1623 . https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2014.978265
Publication
Cambridge Review of International Affairs
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2014.978265
ISSN
0955-7571
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright 2015 Centre of International Studies. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Cambridge Review of International Affairs on 03/01/2015, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09557571.2014.978265
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9071

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