Streit ums Politische 2013/14: The Power of the Spiritual
Heinz Bude and guests
In a post-secular age it becomes increasingly unclear how to differentiate between reactionary and progressive politics towards religion. Thus, the enormous upsurge of Pentecostal churches in Latin America is viewed as an empowerment of women who have had enough of their husbands’ obnoxious machismo. On the other hand, the fundamentalists of monotheistic world religions are playing with fire. Here, religion is part of an explosion of ideology pitting the faithful against the unbelievers. If it is important, as Marx said, not just to accept the world as it is but to change it, then the struggle for the political is always a struggle to gain control over our concept of what exactly we can change. Without inspiration from the outside, politics is evidently impossible. Yet reactions towards this are always split: what arouses enthusiasm in some people leaves others horrified.