Theology and international order: Questions, challenges and explorations
| Author | William Bain |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/17550882221144471 |
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Forum |
https://doi.org/10.1177/17550882221144471
Journal of International Political Theory
2023, Vol. 19(1) 147 –156
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/17550882221144471
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Theology and international
order: Questions, challenges
and explorations
William Bain
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Abstract
Theology is a neglected resource in international relations scholarship; it is, more often
than not, characterised as a threat to political order because it is seen as a cradle of
fanaticism and irrationality. Postsecular scholarship challenges this view by exploring
the persistence of theological ideas and religious belief in political discourse and
practice. Political Theology of International Order is my own contribution to this type of
scholarship. This article engages responses from five distinguished scholars. It considers
the implications of taking theology seriously when theorising international order; the
veracity of narratives that frame the study of international relations; and new directions
and possibilities that arise out of the book.
Keywords
English School, international order, nominalism, political theology, religion, secularism
The idea of order is part of the constitutive vocabulary of International Relations; it is,
along with power, anarchy, security, cooperation, justice and so forth, integral to how we
think and speak about the subject. If this proposition is both obvious and uncontroversial,
suggesting that theology illuminates the character of international order is great deal less
so. Mingling theology with politics, we are regularly told, is a foolhardy enterprise that
opens the door to irrationality, fanaticism and violence. Keeping these domains separate
is what distinguishes Western liberal democracies from the rest; they have learned, at
great expense, anguish and suffering, that excluding questions of religion from the eve-
ryday goings-on of politics is necessary to keep the primordial impulses of political
theology at bay (Lilla, 2007: 3–5). But this self-congratulatory story elides the extent to
Corresponding author:
William Bain, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of
Singapore, AS1 04-43, 11 Arts Link, Singapore 117573, Singapore.
Email: wbain@nus.edu.sg
1144471IPT0010.1177/17550882221144471Journal of International Political TheoryBain
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