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4 - Judging in Conflict

Agonistic Political Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2025

Nicholas Norman-Krause
Affiliation:
Belmont University
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Summary

Having shown how conflict belongs to the goodness of creaturely life and can be generative of human social flourishing, this chapter revisits the question of political community. “Agonistic community,” as I delineate it, incorporates the creative use of conflict in order to forge collectivity across difference, thereby reconceptualizing political community and difference in mutually constitutive terms. I begin the chapter by considering two neglected figures in the history of Christian political thought: the early modern Calvinist Johannes Althusius and the twentieth-century Catholic social philosopher Yves Simon. Both Althusius and Simon, I show, approach politics by theorizing the distinct features of creaturely action and relation, and so center the work of politics on the activities of shared judgment and action. The remainder of the chapter takes up the subject of democratic judgment, showing how agonistic democracy generates shared judgment and action without transcending or effacing conflict and difference. I conclude by examining the community organizing practices of the Industrial Areas Foundation as an instance of agonistic democratic community.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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  • Judging in Conflict
  • Nicholas Norman-Krause, Belmont University
  • Book: Political Theology and the Conflicts of Democracy
  • Online publication: 21 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009603829.005
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  • Judging in Conflict
  • Nicholas Norman-Krause, Belmont University
  • Book: Political Theology and the Conflicts of Democracy
  • Online publication: 21 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009603829.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Judging in Conflict
  • Nicholas Norman-Krause, Belmont University
  • Book: Political Theology and the Conflicts of Democracy
  • Online publication: 21 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009603829.005
Available formats
×