From the outset Jonathan Z. Smith has regarded his study of religion as a matter of public concern, not something separate and apart. He makes this explicit in a number of ways, but does not offer a fully-developed political theory. To make what I argue is his implicit non-sovereign political theory more fully explicit I have drawn on three political theorists, Jeffrey Stout, Hannah Arendt as interpreted by Patchen Markell, and Bruno Latour.
The Contribution of Jonathan Z. Smith’s Study of Religion to Democratic Politics: Religion as Thinking, Thinking as World-making
- By Bruce Woll