Books by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
Anarchism and religion have historically had an uneasy relationship. Indeed, representatives of b... more Anarchism and religion have historically had an uneasy relationship. Indeed, representatives of both sides have regularly insisted on the fundamental incompatibility of anarchist and religious ideas and practices. Yet, ever since the emergence of anarchism as an intellectual and political movement, a considerable number of religious anarchists have insisted that their religious tradition necessarily implies an anarchist political stance.
Reflecting both a rise of interest in anarchist ideas and activism on the one hand, and the revival of religious ideas and movements in the political sphere on the other, this multi-volume collection examines congruities and contestations between the two from a diverse range of academic perspectives.
The third volume of Essays in Anarchism & Religion includes five essays focusing on particular individuals (Abraham Heyn, Leo Tolstoy, Herbert Read, Daniel Guérin and Martin Buber), one essay on the affinities between mysticism and anarchism, and one surveying the vast territory of ‘spiritual anarchism’.
In a world where political ideas increasingly matter once more, and religion is an increasingly visible aspect of global political life, these essays offer scholarly analysis of overlooked activists, ideas and movements, and as such reveal the possibility of a powerful critique of contemporary global society.
Articles by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
A pacifist critique of the red poppy: reflections on British war commemorations’ increasingly hegemonic militarism
Critical Military Studies, 2021
The red or ‘Flanders’ poppy has become the ubiquitous emblem of British war commemorations, yet i... more The red or ‘Flanders’ poppy has become the ubiquitous emblem of British war commemorations, yet it is also becoming more hegemonic and militaristic: the poppy’s meaning has always been contested, but its dominant interpretation has become increasingly intolerant. Building on literature on the poppy and war commemorations, on pacifist approaches to security studies and on militarism, this article sketches a pacifist critique of the poppy’s increasingly hegemonic militarism. It starts by sketching out a history of the poppy’s contested meaning. A first-order critique then reflects on the hegemonic poppy narrative’s internal dissonances, on the selective memory which it reveals, and on the blinkered horizon of compassion and identification which it promotes. A second-order critique exposes the broader political and ethical consequences including for the military-industrial-entertainment complex, for liberal institutionalist projects, and for veterans. The final section reflects on the resulting unease that can be triggered by the poppy’s hegemonizing function in British civil religion and calls for poppy commemorations to better accommodate deeper reflections on the causes of war, militarism, and the potentially complicit role played by war commemorations.
"When Leo Tolstoy died in November 1910, he was just as famous for his radical political and reli... more "When Leo Tolstoy died in November 1910, he was just as famous for his radical political and religious writings as he was for his fictional literature. Yet during the hundred years that have passed since, his Christian anarchist voice has been drowned by the sort of historical forces he had always been so eager to make sense of. Today, only few of even those acquainted with his literature know much about his unusual and radical religious and political writings (other perhaps than that they were unusual, radical, religious and political). What he has to say to Christians, to anarchists and indeed to the wider public, however, is just as urgent today as it was at the time of writing. In this testimonial to mark the centenary of his death, therefore, I wish to first provide a brief story of what happened to Tolstoy’s voice, and then to hint at the importance of the sort of contributions he can make to a number of vital challenges facing us today. "
Anarchist Studies, 2008
Leo Tolstoy’s peculiar religious and political thought has been discussed in numerous studies, ye... more Leo Tolstoy’s peculiar religious and political thought has been discussed in numerous studies, yet few of these address a core anarchist concern: his criticisms of the state. Tolstoy denounces not just war but also law and the economy as violent and enslaving, all under the ruthless mechanical supervision of the state machine. Moreover, for him, state authorities are deliberately and hypocritically deceiving the masses, promoting a system that destroys any sense of responsibility, and keeping people hypnotised by regularly whipping up patriotic sentiments – the army being the best example of the strength of all this deceit. Not only is Tolstoy’s denunciation of the state as violent and deceptive eloquently written, but much of it has not lost relevance since he first wrote it more than a century ago.
Politics and Religion, 2008
The ‘war on terror’ has brought to the fore the old debate on the role of religion in politics an... more The ‘war on terror’ has brought to the fore the old debate on the role of religion in politics and international relations, a question on which Tolstoy wrote extensively during the latter part of his life. He considered Jesus to have clearly spelt out some rational moral and political rules for conduct, the most important of which was non-resistance to evil. For Tolstoy, Jesus’ instructions not to resist evil, to love one’s enemies and not to judge one another together imply that a sincere Christian would denounce any form of violence and warfare, and would strive to respond to (whatever gets defined as) evil with love, not force. In today’s ‘war on terror’, therefore, Tolstoy would lament both sides’ readiness to use violence to reach their aims; and he would call for Christians in particular to courageously enact the rational wisdom contained in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Tolstoy’s exegesis of Christianity may be too literal and too rationalistic, and may lead to an exceedingly utopian political vision; but it articulates a refreshingly peaceful method for religion to shape politics, one that can moreover and paradoxically be related to by non-Christians precisely because of its alleged grounding in reason.
The Heythrop Journal, 2007
In this paper, we explore the ontological and theological ground of political institutions in ord... more In this paper, we explore the ontological and theological ground of political institutions in order to then reflect upon the eschatological calling of society. The paper builds on Tillich’s ontological insight that love does not simply transcend justice, but that it permeates and drives justice, that justice gives form to love’s reunion of the separated. This relation between love and justice is at play in political institutions: these unite human beings under forms of justice that must be transformed ever anew if they are not to lose touch with the dynamic power of love and freeze into increasingly unjust juridicalism. The modern history of Western civilisation bears witness to this ontological tension, and the phenomenon of globalisation is yet another instance of human society’s mystical calling. Thus, love heads the dynamic movement that transforms political institutions ever anew. Yet society as a whole must become conscious of its ontology for humanity to truly reach its eschatological potential, and this will require both that theology recovers its ground and that political theory thinks theologically.
Book review of Tripp York's Living on Hope While Living in Babylon: The Christian Anarchists of the 20th Century
Anarchist Studies, 2010
Book Chapters by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
"The Subversive Potential of Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Defamiliarisation’: A Case Study in Drawing on the Imagination to Denounce Violence"
Political Violence and the Imagination: Complicity, Memory and Resistance, edited by Mathias Thaler and Mihaela Mihai, 2020
In his later years, Leo Tolstoy wrote numerous books, essays and pamphlets expounding his newly-a... more In his later years, Leo Tolstoy wrote numerous books, essays and pamphlets expounding his newly-articulated denunciations of all political violence, whether by dissidents or ostensibly legitimate states. If these writings have inspired many later pacifists and anarchists, it is partly thanks to his masterful deployment of the literary technique of ‘defamiliarisation’ – or looking at the familiar as if new – to shake readers into recognising the absurdity of common justifications of violence, admitting their implicit complicity in it, and noticing the process which numbed them into accepting such complicity. This paper discusses Tolstoy’s use of the imagination to defamiliarise and denounce violence, first by citing several typical examples, then by reflecting on four of its subversive characteristics: its disruption of automated perception, its implicit concession of some recognition, its corrosion of conventional respect for traditional hierarchies, and its encouragement of empathy.
‘Religious’ radicalism
Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics, edited by Uri Gordon and Ruth Kinna, 2019
This chapter provides an overview of some historical struggles against domination that are based ... more This chapter provides an overview of some historical struggles against domination that are based in ‘radical religious’ communities. From indigenous peoples to Plowshare and Womanist activists, there is a considerable variety of people working together and drawing from their ‘religious’ faith to resist hierarchy and injustice. They also share many characteristics with their ‘non-religious’ counterparts. Yet what qualifies as ‘religious’ and ‘radical’ is very open to interpretation, and typical interpretations of ‘religion’ in particular often betray a colonial mindset which this chapter seeks to problematise. The chapter therefore introduces a deliberately broad range of examples including indigenous traditions, non-violent alternatives within dominant orders, and marginalised people organising new life stories. By presenting this sample and making the case for a wide definition of ‘religion’, this chapter raises questions about how analytical categories are conceived whilst also offering some reflections on different types of groups whose visions, practices, and holistic worldviews contest dominant orders.
Religious Studies and Anarchism
The Anarchist Imagination: Anarchism Encounters the Humanities and the Social Sciences, edited by Carl Levy and Saul Newman, 2019
Email me on a.christoyannopoulos(at)gmail.com for the paper (email again if no reply after severa... more Email me on a.christoyannopoulos(at)gmail.com for the paper (email again if no reply after several weeks - I have an aggressive spam filer).
Intro:
Despite the traditional anticlericalism and frequent atheism of much anarchism, the intersection of religious studies and anarchism has proved a fertile ground for a variety of analyses, indeed with renewed attention in recent years. Students and practitioners of religion have taken anarchism more seriously, and students and practitioners of anarchism have taken religion more seriously. The encounter can lead to tensions and expose unbridgeable differences, but in most cases explorations have been fruitful, opening up and investigating new avenues of thought and practice.
This dialogue is constituted by a variety of rather different conversations: sometimes anarchists are revisiting their assessment of religion; sometimes religious scholars are articulating a theology which engages with anarchism; sometimes the focus is on how specific anarchists approached religion; sometimes general parallels are drawn between anarchism and religion; sometimes religious scriptures are interpreted to point to anarchist politics; and so on. In other words, the encounter between religious studies and anarchism can concentrate on very different facets of either, and involves very different approaches and methodologies, very different modes and tones of enquiry. That variety reflects not just the different themes of interest to both anarchism and religious studies, but also different ontological, epistemological and methodological approaches.
The aim of this chapter is to sketch out some of the ways in anarchism and religious studies intersect and influence each other’s imagination. The chapter is structured in four sections: the first considers some classic anarchist quarrels with religion and its institutions; the second surveys the scholarship on anarchist interpretations (or in the religious jargon: ‘exegesis’) of founding religious scriptures and figures; the third discusses the growing interest in anarchist ‘theology’ as distinct from scriptural exegesis; and the fourth points to the variety of historical studies on specific religious anarchist thinkers, communities and movements.
Leo Tolstoi über den Staat
Je mehr Gewalt, desto weniger Revolution: Texte zum gewaltfreien Anarchismus & anarchistischen Pazifismus, 2018
Religion et contestation, Sep 2016
De nombreux chrétiens considèrent le Sermon sur la Montagne comme un résumé éloquent du message d... more De nombreux chrétiens considèrent le Sermon sur la Montagne comme un résumé éloquent du message de Jésus à ses disciples. Pour les penseurs anarchistes chrétiens tels que Léon Tolstoï, Jacques Ellul, Michael Elliott et Dave Andrews, il contient également la plus poignante des déclarations de Jésus sur la violence – son appel à ne pas résister au mal mais à tendre l'autre joue – une déclaration qui, affirment-ils, ne peut qu’impliquer une condamnation de l’Etat pour son monopole théorique et pratique de l’utilisation prétendument légitime de la violence. Le présent chapitre offre un aperçu de cette exégèse politique radicale, soulignant l'importance politique de ce passage en montrant que Jésus attend de ses disciples une réaction non pas passive mais résolue ; expliquant pourquoi pour les anarchistes chrétiens, Jésus appelle ses disciples à aller au-delà de la loi du talion ; esquissant un ensemble de réflexions anarchistes chrétiennes sur le cycle de la violence et la méthode radicale de Jésus pour le surmonter ; et démontrant pourquoi cette analyse pousse logiquement les anarchistes chrétiens à rejeter l'État moderne. En bref, ce chapitre montre pourquoi, pour les anarchistes chrétiens, le cœur même de la morale chrétienne ne peut qu’impliquer une forme (non-violente) d’anarchisme. Ce chapitre présente donc un axe principal de l’approche contestataire inspirée de la religion qu’est la pensée anarchiste chrétienne.
New Perspectives on Anarchism, 2010
See wiscnetwork.org link below for earlier draft. Note contact details on that draft are not vali... more See wiscnetwork.org link below for earlier draft. Note contact details on that draft are not valid anymore.
Law, Morality and Politics: Global Perspectives on Violence and the State, 2010
Tolstoy’s Anarchist Denunciation of State Violence and Deception
Anti-Democratic Thought, 2008
Die Bergpredigt - ein christlich-anarchistisches Manifest: Ausgewählte Passagen libertär interpretiert
Christlicher Anarchismus: Facetten einer libertären Strömung, 2013
Πολλοί χριστιανοί βλέπουν την Επί του Όρους Ομιλία του Ιησού ως μια συγκινητική σύνοψη του μηνύμα... more Πολλοί χριστιανοί βλέπουν την Επί του Όρους Ομιλία του Ιησού ως μια συγκινητική σύνοψη του μηνύματός του προς τη χριστιανική κοινότητα. Για χριστιανούς αναρχικούς στοχαστές όπως οι Tolstoy, Ellul, Elliott και Andrews μεταξύ άλλων, στην ομιλία αυτή περιέχεται συνάμα και η πιο σπαραχτική δήλωση του Ιησού για τη βία – το κάλεσμά του να γυρίσουμε και την άλλη παρειά – μια δήλωση που, όπως θεωρούν, δεν μπορεί παρά να σημαίνει την ολοκληρωτική καταδίκη του κράτους για το θεωρητικό και πρακτικό του μονοπώλιο στην κατ’ επίφαση νόμιμη χρήση βίας. Το παρόν κείμενο προσφέρει μια επισκόπηση αυτής της ριζοσπαστικής πολιτικής εξήγησης, δείχνοντας έτσι γιατί, για τους χριστιανούς αναρχικούς, ο πυρήνας του χριστιανισμού δεν μπορεί παρά να συνεπάγεται μια μορφή (μη βίαιου) αναρχισμού.
Τα δύo συχνότερα χρησιμοποιούμενα, εναντίον του χριστιανικού αναρχισμού, χωρία της Βίβλου είναι ο... more Τα δύo συχνότερα χρησιμοποιούμενα, εναντίον του χριστιανικού αναρχισμού, χωρία της Βίβλου είναι οι διακηρύξεις του Αποστόλου Παύλου στο 13 ο κεφάλαιο της Προς Ρωμαίους Επιστολής και η προτροπή του Ιησού «να αποδίδετε στον Καίσαρα αυτά που ανήκουν στον Καίσαρα». Έτσι, σύμφωνα με κάποιες απόψεις, αυτά τα δύο χωρία αποδεικνύουν, μια για πάντα, το ασυμβίβαστο αναρχισμού και χριστιανισμού. Ωστόσο, μια πιο προσεκτική ματιά στο κεφάλαιο 13, παρουσιάζει τον Παύλο να δίνει μια ερμηνεία για την Επί του Όρους Ομιλία του Ιησού -ίσως το πιο θεμελιώδες για τον χριστιανικό αναρχισμό χωρίο της Βίβλου -εφαρμόζοντας απλώς στην περίπτωση του κράτους το γύρισμα και του άλλου μάγουλου. Έτσι, ο Παύλος δεν αντιτίθεται στον χριστιανικό αναρχισμό αλλά εκφράζει την ιδιάζουσα συγχωρητική αντίδραση του τελευταίου απέναντι στο κράτος. Αντίστοιχα, μια προσεκτικότερη ματιά στα λόγια του Ιησού δείχνει πως στην πραγματικότητα πολύ λίγα πράγματα ανήκουν στον Καίσαρα και είναι το ίδιο σημαντικό -αν όχι πολύ σημαντικότερο -να αποδίδεται και στο Θεό αυτό που ανήκει στο Θεό. Οι χριστιανοί αναρχικοί δίνουν επίσης προσοχή στην περίεργη οδηγία του Ιησού στο Κατά Ματθαίον Ευαγγέλιο κεφ. 17, για αναζήτηση του νομίσματοςαντιτίμου για το φόρο του Ναού στο στόμα ενός ψαριού, διότι ο λόγος που ο Ιησούς πράττει έτσι είναι για να αποφύγει τον σκανδαλισμό των παριστάμενων. Εν συντομία, για τους χριστιανούς αναρχικούς, κανένα από τα παραπάνω χωρία δεν ανατρέπει τη ριζοσπαστική πολιτική τους ερμηνεία των διδασκαλιών του Ιησού. Κάθε άλλο, την επιβεβαιώνουν και την ενισχύουν. Την ίδια στιγμή, το ερώτημα για τα όρια αποδοχής οποιασδήποτε πολιτικής ανυπακοής παραμένει αναπάντητο: ενώ κάποιοι χριστιανοί αναρχικοί θεωρούν την πολιτική ανυπακοή προβληματική, κάποιοι άλλοι τη θεωρούν αναπόφευκτη σε ορισμένες περιστάσεις. Ωστόσο, πάνω από όλα, όλοι οι χριστιανοί αναρχικοί τείνουν να συμφωνήσουν ότι η υπακοή ή η ανυπακοή στο κράτος είναι άσχετη με την, πρωτευούσης σημασίας, υπακοή στο Θεό. 1 Άρθρο δημοσιευμένο στο συλλογικό τόμο Alexandre J. M. E. Christoyannopoulos (editor), Religious Anarchism, New Perspectives, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, 2009.
«Одумайтесь, а то погибнете»: Голос Льва Толстого спустя столетие после его смерти
Лев Николаевич Толстой, edited by A.A. Guseinov and T.G. Shchedrina, 2014
Порицание Толстым насилия и лжи государства с позиции анархизма
Лев Николаевич Толстой, edited by A.A. Guseinov and T.G. Shchedrina, 2014
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Books by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
Reflecting both a rise of interest in anarchist ideas and activism on the one hand, and the revival of religious ideas and movements in the political sphere on the other, this multi-volume collection examines congruities and contestations between the two from a diverse range of academic perspectives.
The third volume of Essays in Anarchism & Religion includes five essays focusing on particular individuals (Abraham Heyn, Leo Tolstoy, Herbert Read, Daniel Guérin and Martin Buber), one essay on the affinities between mysticism and anarchism, and one surveying the vast territory of ‘spiritual anarchism’.
In a world where political ideas increasingly matter once more, and religion is an increasingly visible aspect of global political life, these essays offer scholarly analysis of overlooked activists, ideas and movements, and as such reveal the possibility of a powerful critique of contemporary global society.
Articles by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
Book Chapters by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
Intro:
Despite the traditional anticlericalism and frequent atheism of much anarchism, the intersection of religious studies and anarchism has proved a fertile ground for a variety of analyses, indeed with renewed attention in recent years. Students and practitioners of religion have taken anarchism more seriously, and students and practitioners of anarchism have taken religion more seriously. The encounter can lead to tensions and expose unbridgeable differences, but in most cases explorations have been fruitful, opening up and investigating new avenues of thought and practice.
This dialogue is constituted by a variety of rather different conversations: sometimes anarchists are revisiting their assessment of religion; sometimes religious scholars are articulating a theology which engages with anarchism; sometimes the focus is on how specific anarchists approached religion; sometimes general parallels are drawn between anarchism and religion; sometimes religious scriptures are interpreted to point to anarchist politics; and so on. In other words, the encounter between religious studies and anarchism can concentrate on very different facets of either, and involves very different approaches and methodologies, very different modes and tones of enquiry. That variety reflects not just the different themes of interest to both anarchism and religious studies, but also different ontological, epistemological and methodological approaches.
The aim of this chapter is to sketch out some of the ways in anarchism and religious studies intersect and influence each other’s imagination. The chapter is structured in four sections: the first considers some classic anarchist quarrels with religion and its institutions; the second surveys the scholarship on anarchist interpretations (or in the religious jargon: ‘exegesis’) of founding religious scriptures and figures; the third discusses the growing interest in anarchist ‘theology’ as distinct from scriptural exegesis; and the fourth points to the variety of historical studies on specific religious anarchist thinkers, communities and movements.