Description
The term ‘Hierarchy’ has its origins in the work of the 6th century Syrian monk known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. His blend of Neoplatonism and Christianity produced the term ‘Hierarchy’ meaning ‘Holy-Order’ to describe a normative cosmological vision defined by relations of service rather than a stratification of reality based on violence. This paper looks at how this concept shaped early Christian views of the international and how these conceptions might be brought to bear on questions of racism and coloniality. It ties these points to contemporary work that is being done in liberation theology and shows how this tradition of political theology can be seen as offering a critique of the modern-secular-colonial matrix that continues to define contemporary international relations.
