Description
Book SynopsisBringing together an international team of contributors, this volume draws on international political theory and intellectual history to rethink the problem of a pluralistic world order. Inspired by the work of international political theorist Nicholas Rengger, the book focuses on three main areas of Rengger’s contribution to the political theory of international relations: his Augustine-inspired idea of an ‘Anti-Pelagian Imagination’; his Oakeshottian argument for a pluralist ‘conversation of mankind’; and his ruminations on war as the uncivil condition in world politics. Through a critical engagement with his work, the book illuminates the promises and limitations of civility as a sceptical, non-utopian, anti-perfectionist approach to theorizing world order that transcends both realist pessimism and liberal utopianism.
Table of Contents1. Rengger’s anti-Pelagianism: international political theory as civil conversation – Vassilios Paipais Part 1: Anti-Pelagianism and the Civil Condition in World Politics 2. Revisiting Rengger’s Anti-Pelagianism – Noel O’Sullivan and Sophia Dingli 3. Poetics and Politics: Rengger, Weber, and the Virtuosi of Religion – John-Harmen Valk 4. ‘Keep your mind in hell, and despair not’: Gillian Rose’s anti-Pelagianism – Kate Schick Part 2: Challenging the Anti-Pelagian Imagination 5. ‘A Dangerous Place to Be’? Nicholas J. Rengger, the English School, and International Disorder – Ian Hall 6. Rengger’s War on Teleocracy – Chris Brown 7. Conservatism, Civility, and the Challenges of International Political Theory – Michael Williams Part 3: The Uncivil Condition in Word Politics 8. Rengger the Reluctant Rule Follower – Anthony Lang Jr. 9. Rengger and the ‘Business of War’ – Caroline Kennedy-Pipe 10. Just War as Tradition in a Civil International Order – Valerie Morkevičius Afterword 11. Rengger, History, and the Future of International Relations – Richard Whatmore
