At a time when we have never known more about our globe or shared more information, we live--paradoxically--in a driven, disconnected world. In science, in economics, our communications industry, and even in the public sphere, the human person tends to disappear from consideration or evaporate into an abstraction. The new political theology tries to break the spell of this cultural amnesia. These essays and interviews invite readers to consider the future by asking Where are we headed and what do we stand for. Johann Baptist Metz's theology emerged as an attempt to understand shifting borders and threatening situations. It does not prescribe a political agenda or policies, but it does ask where we might stand if we are to shape a meaningful future together rather than in isolated or in ideological camps. Beginning with the spiritualty of his popular Poverty of Spirit, Metz developed a new method of theological inquiry for our anxious times. These essays represent the mature clarification of his earlier work.

John K. Downey is Professor Emeritus of Fundamental Theology at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. A former Director of the Coolidge Research Colloquium, his work turns around the critical mediation of religion and society. He edited Love's Strategy: The Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz (1999) and coedited Missing God? Cultural Amnesia and Political Theology (2006) and Facing the World: Political Theology and Mercy (2018).