The Political Theology of Kierkegaard

Description

Reconstructs a negative political eschatology through thinking of an exception without sovereigntyIntervenes in contemporary debates on post-secularism and the return to religion Constructs a political theology that radically puts into question the logic of sovereign powerRe-thinks the place of religion as the radical outside that does not function as the legitimising principle of sovereignty in today’s world of mass consumption Sets the agenda for re-thinking the relation of religion and politics for our contemporary historical conditionSaitya Brata Das argues that in Kierkegaard’s work we find a radical eschatological critique, not only of the liberal-humanist pathos of modernity but also the political theology of Carl Schmitt, that seeks to legitimise the sovereign power of the state by an appeal to a divine or theological foundation.Relating Kierkegaard’s notion of ‘Christianity without Christendom’ to the Schellingian eschatological critique of sovereignty, he shows how Schelling’s insistence on the eschatological difference between religion and politics is transformed and further intensified in Kierkegaard’s critique of historical reason. Such an exception without sovereignty, Das argues, is the very task of our contemporary time.