Catholic University Scholar to Discuss Unholy Marriages of Politics and Religion

CHESTERTOWN—The Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture at Washington College will host a lecture on the dangers of politicized religion on Tuesday, March 8 . Jeffrey Dirk Wilson, a philosophy professor at Catholic University of America, will present “Political Theology: A Clear and Present Danger—Lessons from the Third Reich to the Present” at 7 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue.

Wilson’s lecture will examine how theological concepts often have been wrenched from their religious contexts and invested in political movements, and will talk about the dangerous consequences that followed.

Professor Wilson works in the field of political philosophy and has special expertise in the area of religion and politics. He is an expert on the writings of the controversial pre-World War II German legal and political theorist Carl Schmitt, whose work advanced the idea that “all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts.” Wilson will highlight the dangers of this approach to state power and how the transcendence of God renders this approach theologically dubious.

Wilson’s talk is free and open to the public.