NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion

This article challenges the common scholarly view that Luke and Acts portray prophecy as reviving only with John the Baptist and Jesus after a period of decline. Through analysis of Luke 11:45–52 and 13:31–35, the study argues that Luke emphasises the continuity of prophecy from the scriptural prophets through Jesus and the apostles as an expression of divine faithfulness. Comparisons with Pesher Habakkuk, Philo, Josephus, and t. Soṭah reveal that, although these sources speak about prophets as figures from the past, they express God’s persistent commitment to his people in other ways and, like Luke, use the figure of the “prophet” to legitimate their account of the past, interpretation of the present, and hopes for the future.

This article examines the entangled relationship between theology and modern governance through the lens of Giorgio Agamben’s account of political and economic theologies. Engaging with Agamben’s works, such as Homo Sacer and The Kingdom and the Glory, the study analyses how Agamben draws on Carl Schmitt’s analysis of political theology to reconstruct genealogically discourses on political theology and economic theology. The article claims that through his account of economic theology, Agamben highlights the theological and religious foundations that have informed and shaped modern capitalist, economic, and political structures. Unlike Schmitt who focuses only on divine sovereignty, Agamben also analyses and puts emphasis on divine economy and providence. In doing so, he does not only confirm the thesis of the secularisation of political concepts but also provides a new critique of modernity dominated according to him by managerial and dispersed model of governance. However, I claim that the current global context, increasingly marked by the resurgence of authoritarianism, populism, and the normalisation of emergency rules, challenges Agamben’s thesis of dispersed managerial governance and re-asserts political theology itself not as a shadow of the past, but as the governing logic of the present, which may be described as “authoritarian governmentality.”

This study analyzes the intertextual reinterpretation of biblical myths in Bashkim Shehu’s fiction, focusing on his novels The Feast and The Serpent and Other Heroes. By tracing Shehu’s recasting of biblical narratives, including Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, and the serpent, the analysis reveals how these myths are reworked to scrutinize the socio-political conditions of post-communist Albania. Shehu’s fiction illustrates a broader tendency in post-communist literature, where religious symbols interrogate oppression, guilt, redemption, and the pursuit of meaning. Through intertextuality and vivid symbolism, Shehu transforms biblical myths into pointed metaphors for both collective and personal turmoil in a society emerging from totalitarianism, offering a unique viewpoint on the convergence of religion, literature, and politics.