Critical Theology

What is the future of theology in the midst of rapid geopolitical and economic change?Carl A. Raschke contends that two options from the last century-crisis theology and critical theory-do not provide the resources needed to address the current global crisis. Both of these perspectives remained distant from the messiness and unpredictability of life. Crisis theology spoke of the wholly other God, while critical theory spoke of universal reason. These ideas aren't tenable after postmodernism and the return of religion, which both call for a dialogical approach to God and the world. Rashke's new critical theology takes as its starting point the biblical claim that the Word became flesh-a flesh that includes the cultural, political and religious phenomena that shape contemporary existence.Drawing on recent reformulations of critical theory by Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou and post-secularists such as Jürgen Habermas, Raschke introduces an agenda for theological thinking accessible to readers unfamiliar with this literature. In addition, the book explores the relationship between a new critical theology and current forms of political theology. Written with the passion of a manifesto, Critical Theology presents the critical and theological resources for thinking responsibly about the present global situation.

Carl A. Raschke (PhD, Harvard University) is professor of religious studies at the University of Denver, specializing in continental philosophy, the philosophy of religion and the theory of religion. He is an internationally known writer and academic who has authored numerous books and hundreds of articles on topics ranging from postmodernism to popular religion and culture to technology and society. Raschke is the author or coauthor of books such as The Revolution in Religious Theory: Toward a Semiotics of the Event, GloboChrist, The Next Reformation, Faith and Reason: Three Views, Painted Black, The Interruption of Eternity, The Digital Revolution and the Coming of the Postmodern University, Fire and Roses: Postmodernity and the Thought of the Body and The Engendering God. He is co-founder and senior editor of The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory and he is a regular blogger and current affairs editor with Political Theology Today.A well-known expert on religion and higher education, Raschke has been interviewed at least nine hundred times over two decades. During the late 1980s and early 1990s he advised the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, DC, on matters involving core curriculum, serving for several years as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Core Curriculum. He has also served on the board of directors and various national committees of the American Academy of Religion. Raschke is a permanent adjunct faculty member at the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology as well as the Global Center for Advanced Studies, and has been a visiting scholar and lecturer at the University of Vienna. He is co-proprietor of Wingsoar, a lecturing, writing and seminar company, and he is co-founder of the Global Art Ideas Nexus. He and his wife Sunny live in Denver, Colorado.