5 - Towards a theology of public conversation

Summary

Introduction

Let us review where in our story we were before the “theological turn” of the last chapter, after we had listened to some of the conversation happening within political theory about ways to picture collective life marked by deep diversity. We were, in fact, in a bit of a quandary. We agreed with the agonist political theorists that the theory of political liberalism entails quite a bit more, ontologically speaking, than political liberals want to admit, and results in a theory that is neither as tolerant nor as inclusive as they desire it to be. Like the post-Nietzscheans, we desired a way to move forward that more honestly recognizes and respects the particularity of the differences in our midst. Unlike the post-Nietzscheans, however, we were unconvinced that ontologies deeply rooted in conflict and power can sustain the ethos they commend. We raised serious questions about the necessary dichotomization such theorists posit between unity and diversity, harmony and particularity, wondering if an unmitigated celebration of difference enables us to identify harmful differences or move beyond current political, cultural, and religious divisions and polarizations to a workable collective life. We hoped that our political imagination would benefit from considering an ontology that is distinctly Christian, rooted in a Trinitarian understanding of God as the source and redeemer of reality, creation, and human being.