ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows how Augustine engaged with and criticized a pagan version of civil theology. It also shows how it is the consideration of evil that could move philosophers invested in a project of autonomous reason nevertheless towards the heteronomous space of theology. The book also shows how Hegel would ultimately “take sides with the serpent,” when he collapses the difference between worldly and divine time: it is, ultimately, for Hegel the self-redemptive and dialectical process of history that provides the redemption of evil. It investigates the issues of political communalism through a concrete case study as it delves into how the Italian historian of religions, Raffaele Pettazzoni construed the state-persecution of religions. The book explains a transatlantic perspective as it sets forth Argentinian philosopher Rodolfo Kusch’s criticism of colonial political and religious practices in Latin America in early modern times.
