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The Subversive Kernel : Anarchism and the Politics of Jesus In THE SUBVERSIVE KERNEL: ANARCHISM AND THE POLITICS OF JESUS IN POSTSECULAR THEOLOGY By Theodore P. Troxell A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILSOPHY American Studies 2012 ABSTRACT THE SUBVERSIVE KERNEL: ANARCHISM AND THE POLITICS OF JESUS IN POSTSECULAR THEOLOGY By Theodore P. Troxell The relationship between religion and politics has been a tenuous one in Western culture. Related to this tension is the growing interest in what we might call the “postsecular.” Postsecularity describes the sense in which what we think of as the secular is not something left over when religion is abolished but rather a way of thinking that was constructed in response to and on the heels of developments in Christian theology. This dissertation examines the work of John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, and John Milbank, three theologians whose work is not only postsecular in the way just described, but also politically radical. In particular, it explores the extent to which these theologians might contribute to conversations surrounding emerging forms of anarchism – sometimes called “postanarchism” – in response to neoliberalism. The theological means by which the three thinkers arrive at a radical politics are relevant to anarchist theory and conversations about radical resistance, but it is Yoder’s comprehensively nonviolent politics that has the most to offer postanarchist theory. This project is dedicated to my grandfather, William Deane Steiner. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee for their challenge and their patience. I would especially like to thank Dr. Arthur Versluis for his encouragement as my advisor and Dr. Ann Larabee for her help with administrative details as program director. I am indebted to Dr. John Nugent of Great Lakes Christian College for introducing me to John Howard Yoder, for encouraging me to include Milbank, and for his careful and critical editing. He was also helpful in locating obscure sources. Conversations with Michelle Campbell at Central Michigan University helped to shape this project, especially as it drew to a close. She is far more my teacher than my student. I am grateful to the members of “Epicthread,” a 30,000+-comment Facebook thread, for the conversation about politics and theology. Finally, and most importantly, I thank my family – Doris Troxell and our children Kate, Clay, Beth, and William – for their love and care in the midst of this process, especially since this is less the end than the beginning. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: FINDING THE SUBVERSIVE KERNEL......................................................1 Defining the Subversive Kernel ...........................................................................................6 Alexandre Christoyannopoulos ............................................................................................8 Jesus Radicals ....................................................................................................................17 Five Topoi ..........................................................................................................................23 Method ...............................................................................................................................25 CHAPTER 1: THE SUBVERSIVE KERNEL IN AMERICA .....................................................28 Radical Abolitionists ..........................................................................................................30 Radical Community ...........................................................................................................37 Whither Nonresistance? .....................................................................................................41 Nonviolence in America ....................................................................................................44 Good News for the Poor ....................................................................................................48 Life in Babylon ..................................................................................................................54 An-Arky .............................................................................................................................62 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................73 CHAPTER 2: JOHN HOWARD YODER ....................................................................................75 Etiology ..............................................................................................................................76 Eschatology ........................................................................................................................85 Ethics..................................................................................................................................95 Ecclesiology .....................................................................................................................104 Economics ........................................................................................................................114 Almost Anarchist .............................................................................................................118 CHAPTER 3: STANLEY HAUERWAS ....................................................................................121 Ethics................................................................................................................................125 Etiology ............................................................................................................................132 Eschatology ......................................................................................................................136 Economics ........................................................................................................................144 Ecclesiology .....................................................................................................................149 Against Liberalism ...........................................................................................................157 CHAPTER 4: JOHN MILBANK ................................................................................................164 Etiology ............................................................................................................................172 Ecclesiology .....................................................................................................................176 Ethics................................................................................................................................183 Economics ........................................................................................................................191 Eschatology ......................................................................................................................199 Anarchist Gestures ...........................................................................................................205 v CONCLUSION: THE SUBVERSIVE KERNEL AND POSTANARCHIST THEORY ...........211 The Slavery of Our Times................................................................................................212 Constantine’s Ghost .........................................................................................................217 Christianity and Violence ................................................................................................226 Postanarchist Resonances ................................................................................................238 The Postsecular Kernel ....................................................................................................247 APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................................253 WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................................259 vi Introduction: Finding the Subversive Kernel There has always been a radical element in Christianity that has remained courageously loyal to the vision of Jesus. You find these radical disciples everywhere – in African shanty towns and South American barrios, American ghettoes and British sump housing estates – identifying themselves cheerfully with the dispossessed, and courageously challenging the systems that oppress them. Poor in spirit and heart, they keep alive the challenge of Jesus to the thoughtless excesses of the powers that rule the world, proving that the Sermon on the Mount is still one of the most subversive utterances in history. -Richard Holloway, How to Read the Bible, pp. 88-89. The relationship between religion and politics – particularly with regard to Christianity, but more generally as well – has been a tenuous one in Western culture. If not exactly an arena of endless struggle, it is certainly a site of constant negotiation. Mark Lilla, in The Stillborn God, traces this negotiation in the West, beginning with what he calls “political theology…a primordial form of human thought [that] for millennia has provided a deep well of ideas and symbols for organizing society and inspiring action for good or ill” (4) and continuing through Augustine’s “two cities,” Boniface’s “two swords,” and Luther’s
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