Abstract
The paper argues that Carl Schmitt’s notion of political theology is descriptively concerned with elucidating structural analogies between the basal self-description of an epoch and its various social institutions, not least the political. His political theology is critically interested in positing a functional equivalence between the idea of the historic Roman Church and the modern state. To explore this posited equivalence, the paper investigates various theological tropes that become ‘secularized,’ including the medieval distinction between absolute and ordained power, the medieval ‘discovery’ of contingency and freedom, the co-dependence of authority and reason, and the ‘manifestations of communion’ (Hauriou) displayed by citizens of well-functioning states. The paper closes by wondering whether the semantics of our liberal age makes it impossible not only to accept, but even to understand the functional equivalencies Schmitt proposes. Yet, it also suggests that precisely this incomprehensibility might be a prod to further investigation rather than simple dismissal.
Notes
2. See Tierney (Citation1955), for a still authoritative account on the aims and effects of the conciliar movement.
3. See German original in Schmitt (Citation1996a, pp. 50–51). The confusion is in the use of the pronoun ‘ihr.’
4. Ulmen translates Verbindung (Schmitt, Citation1984, p. 13) as ‘union’ (Schmitt, Citation1996b, p. 8), ignoring the terms primary meanings. I believe ‘connection’ or ‘association’ to be more accurate in this case.
5. Interestingly, the medieval movement to assert papal infallibility was not meant to provide the pope with ‘arbitrary’ power, but rather to constrain the power of sitting popes by binding them to the decisions of past pontiffs. See Tierney (Citation1972, Citation1997), chapter XVI (reprinted article with original pagination).
6. My discussion of this distinction relies heavily on Courtenay (Citation1990), and Oberman (2000).
8. Mika Ojakangas (Citation2012) has nicely demonstrated Schmitt’s conformity to the pattern, with, of course, the customary condemnation. (One might add that Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence’ also evinces the same affinity; nonetheless the consensus seems to be that Benjamin plays the role of a saint to Schmitt’s Satan. See e.g. Agamben (Citation2005). I guess sometimes it does depend on who you are more than what you say.) See also Kalyvas (Citation2000), with whom Ojakangas disagrees; Kalyvas (Citation2008, pp. 79–186); and Rasch (Citationin press).
9. I cite from the introduction to Scotus (Citation1994, p. 19), written collectively by the editors, who also comment on the text throughout.
10. I again cite from the introduction, Scotus (Citation1994, p. 27). The discussion of the modal logic of possible worlds takes place on pp. 30–32.
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