Join us for the 2017 Davis Lecture in Christianity by Northwestern University's Sylvester Johnson.
The Exception and the Rule: Christianity, National Security, and the Racialization of Islam
In recent years, numerous scholars have engaged with political theology (à la Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Gamben) to interpret religion and state power by foregrounding the legacy of European fascism and the assumptions of political liberalism. What happens when race and colonialism move to the foreground, not as relics of a past era but as contemporary forms of Western state power? In this talk, Johnson draws on research featured in his newly published book The FBI and Religion: Faith and National Security Before and After 9/11 (co-edited with Steven Weitzman) to examine the relationship between national security practices in the United States that target Muslims as enemies while considering the longue durée of Christian political theology. How should scholars understand American Christianity given the deep history between Islam and Christendom? Is there an American prequel to anti-Muslim state practices witnessed since 9/11? What do current national security paradigms reveal about the political architecture of modern Christianity and its role in constituting the West? Johnson’s lecture will take up these questions to propose an account of Christianity in the United States and the construction of Islam as a national security emergency.
Reception with light refreshments to follow
