Political Theology After the End of Politics and the Flight of the Gods.

In this paper I examine the history of the Delphic Oracle under Roman imperial rule in order to explore the nature of political theology under conditions of political stability and widespread religious doubt. During the heyday of the Greek city-states, the Delphic Oracle offered divine guidance for a wide range of political problems; however, the Oracle’s prominence declined as the vibrancy of Greek political life faded. It is widely acknowledged that a series of Roman emperors attempted to restore the Oracle during the first and second centuries; it is, however, less widely acknowledged that Rome's attempt to reconstruct the physical site of the Oracle coincided with an attempt on the part of several Greek thinkers â€" Plutarch, in particular â€" to restore its intellectual underpinnings. I argue that this latter project centers on a unique sort of philosophically informed history, which delves into the political and theological conflagrations of the past in order to keep their embers glowing in the present. It is on the basis of such an intellectual project, I suggest, that theology can come to be meaningful for politics even in a world lacking both pressing political concerns and any immediate experience of the divine. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]