Monotheism, Intolerance, and the Path to Pluralistic Politics

Explores the dangers and benefits of monotheistic intolerance, interacting with scholars of monotheism, evolutionary theory, and agonistic pluralism.

Christopher A. Haw (Author)

9781108810296, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 September 2022

286 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.427 kg

‘Christopher Haw’s apologia for monotheism provides a long overdue dialogue between René Girard’s mimetic theory and Jan Assmann’s political theory of polytheism. By building up on the best of both these two approaches he arrives at a deeper understanding of monotheism’s relation with violence. Relating this profound piece of political theology to the work of political theorist Chantal Mouffe opens a new perspective for a pluralistically open liberalism.’ Wolfgang Palaver, Fellow at STIAS (Stellenbosch, South Africa)

Discussions of monotheism often consider its bigotry toward other gods as a source of conflict, or emphasize its universality as a source of peaceful tolerance. Both approaches, however, ignore the combined danger and liberation in monotheism's 'intolerance.' In this volume, Christopher Haw reframes this important argument. He demonstrates the value of rejecting paradigms of inclusivity in favor of an agonistic pluralism and intolerance of absolutism. Haw proposes a model that retains liberal, pluralistic principles while acknowledging their limitations, and he relates them to theologies latent in political ideas. His volume offers a nuanced, evolutionary, and historical understanding of the biblical tradition's emergence and its political consequences with respect to violence. It suggests how we can mediate impasses between liberal and conservative views in culture wars; between liberal inclusivity and conservative decisionism; and, on the religious front, between apologetics for exclusive monotheism and critiques of its intolerance.

1. Pluralism's requisite intolerance
2. Girard's mimetic theory and monotheism's ambivalent effects
3. Monotheism and the monopoly on violence: Freud and Girard
4. Containing violence and two entirely different kinds of religion
5. Polytheism and the victim in Ancient Eqypt
6. A political theology of the mosaic distinction: the development of apophatic intolerance
7. Jesus Christ and intolerance: toward revelation without rivalry
8. Conclusion: how to be intolerant.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Social & political philosophy [HPS]