Distinguished Lecture Jayne Svenungsson: Political theologies at the end of the world

The idea that the world is coming to an end has never been far away in cultures rooted in the biblical tradition. In a longue durée perspective, the sense that the end is drawing near seems to have been the rule rather than the exception. Yet it is difficult to deny that the past decades have been particularly ripe of events that seem to herald the end. This heightened sense of urgency is reflected in the notion of ‘polycrisis’, which is regularly invoked today to describe how the world’s most pressing challenges – wealth discrepancies, armed conflicts, climate extremes, energy shortages, pandemics, mass migration, rising authoritarianism, global webs of exploitation, and so on – are intersecting and overlapping in ways that mutually exacerbate each other’s effects. If it is true that our times are facing challenges of apocalyptic proportions, what should be the proper philosophical response the situation? This lecture will address this question in dialogue with some leading political theologians and philosophers of our time.