Common Good(s): Economy, Ecology, Political Theology | Drew Theological School | Twelfth Annual Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium

Even as any sense of the “common” and its “good” has become questionable, so has hope of political solutions to the globalization of ecological crisis and economic injustice. What role does political theology—before and after its secularization—play in the formulation of the shared good and the sharing of goods? How does the much discussed ‘return of religion’ or ‘postsecularity’ reconfigure political theory and practice? What ideas are emerging out of recent transgressive and transformational local practices and assemblages? How might a transdisciplinary theological discourse support the fragile potentiality of a new ecopolitical planetarity—of “a world of becoming”?

These questions need to be addressed in fresh experiments within and across action and theory. The events on Thursday and Friday provide opportunities for the members of the Drew community and beyond to engage with and learn from a range of students, religious leaders, scholars, and activists who are working in creative ways at Living the Common Good(s). At midday on Friday, everyone is invited to a public lecture by colloquium presenter William Connolly, who will think with us philosophically about planetary politics.

During the graduate student panels on Friday and on into the scholar’s colloquium on Saturday and Sunday, we take up the current concern with the public voice of religion—which may legitimatize conservative or transformative social forces—and the political tensions between difference and the common good. We seek a sense of the commons, of the common wealth, that motivates a radicalized eco-social democracy—without violating the singular diversities that make it up. Here the ambiguous tradition of “political theology” and its secularizations comes into a deeper engagement with theology itself. Presuming no religious bottom line, and yet sharing a commitment to a just and sustainable common future, this transdisciplinary theological discourse—in all its events—embraces the unlikely solidarity of a “world of becoming.”

Find out more about the Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium at Drew Theological School.


				Even as any sense of the “common” and its “good” has become questionable, so has hope of political solutions to the globalization of ecological crisis and economic injustice. What role does political theology—before and after its secularization—play in the formulation of the shared good and the sharing of goods? How does the much discussed ‘return of religion’ or ‘postsecularity’ reconfigure political theory and practice? What ideas are emerging out of recent transgressive and transformational local practices and assemblages? How might a transdisciplinary theological discourse support the fragile potentiality of a new ecopolitical planetarity—of “a world of becoming”? These questions need to be addressed in fresh experiments within and across action and theory. The events on Thursday and Friday provide opportunities for the members of the Drew community and beyond to engage with and learn from a range of students, religious leaders, scholars, and activists who are working in creative ways at Living the Common Good(s). At midday on Friday, everyone is invited to a public lecture by colloquium presenter William Connolly, who will think with us philosophically about planetary politics. During the graduate student panels on Friday and on into the scholar’s colloquium on Saturday and Sunday, we take up the current concern with the public voice of religion—which may legitimatize conservative or transformative social forces—and the political tensions between difference and the common good. We seek a sense of the commons, of the common wealth, that motivates a radicalized eco-social democracy—without violating the singular diversities that make it up. Here the ambiguous tradition of “political theology” and its secularizations comes into a deeper engagement with theology itself. Presuming no religious bottom line, and yet sharing a commitment to a just and sustainable common future, this transdisciplinary theological discourse—in all its events—embraces the unlikely solidarity of a “world of becoming.” Find out more about the Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium at Drew Theological School.


		Copyright © 2012 Drew University