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What makes theology political? Is it the social location of the author, the sources
drawn upon, or the content of the argument? Each of these three possibilities is
theologically significant, but a little reflection proves none of them decisive in
claiming the adjective ‘political’ for a theology. The ‘material production’ of
theological works cannot, by itself, render one theology political and another
apolitical; for all theological works share a similar ‘social location’ given the similar
socio-economic reality of publishing. Whether or not theology is political, or
adequately political, cannot finally be determined by material production, the
authors’ social location or the content of the argument per se. Such forms of
apodictic reasoning cannot distinguish apolitical from political theology. It can
only be a function of practical reasoning. It alone can advance the current stalemate
among persons that theology should be characterized as ‘church’, ‘confessional’,
‘sectarian’, ‘liberatory’, ‘political’ or ‘public’. I argue that the best we can
do to adjudicate these differences is to engage in, as Charles Taylor has so aptly
put it, practical ad hominem arguments.