ABSTRACT
‘Political theologies’ have emerged in the twentieth century in the face of modern political and societal challenges. In dealing with these challenges, political theologians have often interpreted them as the result of secularization. Such an interpretation has often focused their endeavours, but it has also limited their view of contemporary society insofar as they have overlooked the possibilities for the diversity and vitality of religion in public life. This paper begins with a typology of three contrasting directions in political theology. One approach seeks to overcome secularization by restoring the past; another approach seeks to separate the church as an alternative mode of life from modern society; and the third approach in its critique of secularization is open to the postsecular and seeks to bring the religious into public political discourse.
