The Time is Contracted

    "The time that remains is between now and midnight."

 comment made by Kyle Lambert,  presenter  on panel Atmospheric Affects: 

Political Theologies of Hope, Sorrow and EcoSocial Resilience   

     Last week I attended the Political Theology Network Conference at Union Seminary in New York City. I went because I had never heard of “political theology” and also wanted to hear Reverend William Barber from the Poor People’s Campaign and Michelle Alexander, author of the New Jim Crow. Hurricane winds kept Reverend Barber grounded in North Carolina. So in place of Rev. Barber we heard an opening panel of presenters talk about their academic journey to political theology in their research or field of study.

     I attended the conference with my friend and fellow mission co-worker  and trouble maker, Max Surjadinata . He too was unfamiliar with the term. At one point we looked at each other and I said, “I think we have been doing this all along.” He smiled and nodded yes back. Our call to ministry is to follow Jesus into the streets.

     This was the second Network Conference of scholars, activists, and theologians from around the world. Here is a sampling of some of the titles of their talks:

1. Agamben’s Messianism in the Postcolonial World: Reimaging the Sovereignty of the TraumatizedNation-State Amidst the Global Refugee Crisis; 
2.  Images of Fundamentalism in the Newly Democratizing States: The Emergence of Religious Nationalism in Indonesia and Myanmar
3. Political Theology of Trauma;
4. Simone Weil’s Political Theology of the Corpus Mysticum: Rending the Body of Christ; Counting on Apocalypse.

     I felt like Alice down the rabbit hole. I had entered an intellectual terrain that was both familiar and foreign. I grasped for the low hanging fruits of things I could understand and let go of trying to hold onto everything. There were a few things I came away with pertinent to my pastoral ministry and my current preoccupation, obsession, with climate justice or climate catastrophe as many refer to these times, the times directly calling out end time scenarios of apocalypse if we don’t change our course now.

     The apostle Paul two thousand years ago noted, “The appointed time is short (1Cor. 7:29). In Greek, theologian Catherine Keller points out that the word translated short is far more complicated, inviting and political. It means “gathered together” or “contracted.” Keller learned about this by reading political philosopher Giorgio Agamben in his meditation on Paul, The Time that Remains.

     You get the drift by now, right? Philosophers, agnostics, atheists scholars are now very interested in the intersection of how “Theos” or divinity intersects with all aspects of life. It is no longer forbidden or suspect for academics to talk about theology as an important aspect of all aspects of our social, economic, and political life. Theology is not politics, but it is already political because it arises out of particular social-political context. Heady stuff.

     At the end of Day 2 during our reception students from Union passed out playing card size posters announcing that “Union Theological Seminary plans to erect a 42 story tower of luxury condos and therefore contribute to the displacement of poor and Black communities in Harlem through gentrification.” The card also made reference to the tradition of the Tarot calling attention to the fact that the fall of the Tower symbolizes destruction, danger, and crisis. Then in bold letters, “Union’s tower will destroy and endanger already marginalized communities.” We were urged to Union to stop the Tower. Then students rolled out banners and lit some candles and gave speeches urging immediate action.

     Ironic, appropriate, hypocritical. All true. How could Union dare to hold such a conference in light of these facts on the ground? How could they not? How can any of us, flawed and imperfect, not at least try to deal with the political theological realities we are participating or living in?
     I left the conference full to brimming over with new ideas on how to develop a political theology up to the call to develop a hazardous hope during this contracted time that honors our collective grief and yet doesn't paralyze us into inaction or despair. I will try to articulate this in a down to earth way. It will involve looking at those apocalyptic texts I have always avoided and maybe even re-reading Paul. Join me.