Insistence of the Theologico-Political

11.6.2009 till 13.6.2009

INSISTENCE OF THE THEOLOGICO-POLITICAL
How and Why Did Modern Political Philosophy and Theory Become Engaged with the Theological?

Time and place:
June 11th – 13th 2009
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki
(Please note different venue for the keynote presentations)
Finland

Organisers:
Mika Ojakangas (mika.ojakangas (at) helsinki.fi, tel. +358 9 191 23464)
and Janne Porttikivi (jporttik (at) welho.com),
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies/University of Helsinki/Academy of Finland

Co-organizers
Päivi Mehtonen (Academy of Finland Project: Literature, Transcendence
and Avantgarde/University of Tampere)
Markku Koivusalo (Department of Political Science, University of Helsinki)

Further information on the symposium is available at:
www.helsinki.fi/collegium/events/theologico_political.htm

Symposium programme

Thursday, 11th June
Morning Session at the University Main Building (Unioninkatu 34 Auditorium XV)

10:15 Opening words

10:30 Plenary lecture and discussion: Professor Philip Goodchild, (University of Nottingham, Great Britain): "Economies of Promise: On the Credit Crunch and the Gospel"

12-13:15 Lunch break

Afternoon Session at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
(Fabianinkatu 24, seminar room 136):

13:15-14:45

Ville Päivänsalo (University of Helsinki), “Why Young Rawls Rose to Defend Reasonable Limits to Religion?”

Anders Berg-Sørensen (University of Copenhagen), “Politics of Secularism”

Tuomas Parsio (University of Rennes), “Leo Strauss on Moral Life”

Coffee break

15:15-16:45

Pamela Slotte (University of Helsinki), “Political Theology in International Law and Protestant Theology: Some Comparative Remarks”

Mónica Garcia-Salmones (University of Helsinki), “Beyond Humanist Ambivalence? International Law and the Sacred”

Mika Luoma-Aho (University of Rovaniemi), "Corporeal Social Imaginary and the Political Theology of IR"

17:00 Rector’s reception (Unioninkatu 34, Teachers' Lounge)

Friday, 12th June
Morning Session at the University Main Building (Unioninkatu 34, Auditorium XV)

10:15 Plenary lecture and discussion: Professor Hent de Vries, (John Hopkins University, USA, Collège international de philosophie, France): "A Politics of Miracles"

12-13:15 Lunch

Afternoon Session at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
(Fabianinkatu 24, Seminar room 136):

13:15-14:45

Jari Kauppinen (University of Helsinki), “Science is Faith. A Reading of Derrida’s ’Faith and Knowledge”

Bart Philipsen (Catholic University of Leuven), “The Insistence of Hölderlin, or The Insistence of the Literary in the Theologico-Political”

Päivi Mehtonen (University of Tampere), “Philosophy of the Future? Fritz Mauthner’s (1849-1923) Godless Mysticism”

Coffee break

15.15-16.45

Mika Ojakangas (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies), “Potentia absoluta et potentia ordinata Dei: On the Theological Origins of Carl
Schmitt’s Theory of Constitution”

Markku Koivusalo (University of Helsinki), “We, Other Christians? Political Theology of Pastoral Power”

Elisa Heinämäki (University of Helsinki), “The Insistence of the always already Lost. Interrogating Bataille about Religion”

19:00 Dinner

Saturday, 13th June
Morning Session at The Collegium for Advanced Studies (Fabianinkatu 24, Seminar room 136)

10:15-11:45

Janne Porttikivi (University of Helsinki), “A Bastard Theology without Father: Note on Contemporary Usage of Christianity in Politics and Philosophy”

Artemy Magun (European Unviersity at St Petersburg), “Political Theology in Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt: Christianity contra Judaism”

Ari Hirvonen (University of Helsinki), “Revolution as Miracle, Divine Violence, and Messianic Interruption”

12-13:15 Lunch

Afternoon Session at The Collegium for Advanced Studies (Fabianinkatu 24, Seminar room 136):

13:15-14:45

Christian Nilsson (Södertön Unviersity College), “The Absolutely Profane: On Walter Benjamin”

Sergei Prozorov (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies), “The Use of Anomie: Schmitt and Agamben on the Figure of the Katechon”

Catherine Mills (University of Sydney), “The Promise of Post-theological Politics”

15:00
Closing of the Symposium