It has been used to discuss Augustine of Hippo's City of God[1] and Thomas Aquinas's works Summa Theologica[2] and De Regno: On Kingship.
[3] It has likewise been used to describe the Eastern Orthodox view of symphonia[4] and the works of the Protestant reformers Martin Luther[5] and John Calvin.
Mikhail Bakunin had used the term in his 1871 text "The Political Theology of Mazzini and the International"[10] to which Schmitt's book was a response.
have divided the approach of political theology between a rightist traditional concern with individual "moral reform" (such as Clyde Wilcox's God's Warriors [1992] and Ted Jelen's The Political World of the Clergy [1993]) and a leftist focus on collective "social justice" (such as Jeffrey K. Hadden's The Gathering Storm in the Churches [1969] and Harold Quinley's The Prophetic Clergy [1974]).
[12] Kwok Pui-lan has argued that, while Schmitt may have come up with the term and its modern usage, political theologies were likewise forming along very different trajectories elsewhere around the world, such as in Asia.
[14] Many major non-Christian philosophers have written extensively on the topic of political theology during recent years, such as Jürgen Habermas,[15] Odo Marquard,[16] Giorgio Agamben, Simon Critchley,[17] and Slavoj Zizek.
[18] Since the early 21st century, there has also been a growing discourse around Islamic political theology, especially within Western contexts that were previously dominated by Christianity.
For Christianity, this relationship can be seen from the religion's earliest encounters in the country during the imperial period, with the Church of the East's interaction with the Emperor Taizong and Jesuit missionaries in the Ming court.
It argues that the separation of powers has it origin in polytheism, and proposes a political theology based on "enlightened polymythical thinking".
[citation needed] Political theologians try to balance the demands of a tumultuous region with the delicate but long history of Christianity in the Middle East.
The region's importance to Christians worldwide – both for history and doctrinal authority for many denominations – also shapes the political theologies of the Middle East.
[31] In the mid-20th century, many Christians in the Middle East saw secular politics as a way out of their traditional status as a minority community in the Islamic world.
[32] According to the Cameroonian theologian and sociologist Jean-Marc Éla, African Christianity "has to be formulated from the struggles of our people, from their joys, from their pains, from their hopes and from their frustrations today.
Moreover, he has been a severe critic of liberal democracy, capitalism, and militarism, arguing that all of those ideologies are antithetical to Christian convictions.