The Lessons of Carl Schmitt: Four Chapters on the Distinction between Political Theology and Political Philosophy, Expanded Edition by Heinrich Meier (review)

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-449
Author(s):  
Benjamin Robinson
Il Politico ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-116
Author(s):  
Marco Menon

This paper offers a short overview of Heinrich Meier’s books on Carl Schmitt’s political theology, namely Carl Schmitt und Leo Strauss, and Die Lehre Carl Schmitts. These writings, published respectively in 1988 and 1994, and recently translated into Italian by Cantagalli (Siena), have raised both enthusiastical appraisal and fierce criticism. The gist of Meier’s interpretation is the following: the core of Schmitt’s thought is his Christian faith. Schmitt’s political doctrine must be unterstood as political theology, that is, as a political doctrine which claims to be grounded on divine revelation. The fundamental attitude of the political theologian, therefore, is pious obedience to God’s unfathomable will. The hypothesis of the paper is that Meier’s reading, which from a historical point of view might appear as highly controversial, is essentially the attempt to articulate the fundamental alternative between political theology and political philosophy. Meier’s alleged stylization of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss is a form of “platonism”, i.e., a theoretical purification aimed at a clear formulation of what he means by “the theologico-political problem”.


Author(s):  
Bruno Irion Coletto

RESUMO: O artigo busca explorar as críticas e os comentários lançados por Leo Strauss acerca de um dos principais livros de Carl Schmitt, intitulado O Conceito do Político. Sob o pressuposto da existência de um “diálogo escondido” entre os dois filósofos, e sob o pano de fundo da disputa entre a Teologia Política e a Filosofia Política, primeiramente explorar-se-ão os aspectos fundamentais da obra schmittiana, enquadrando-a como a afirmação do âmbito político perante o projeto de um liberalismo individualista despolitizador moderno. Compreendidos os aspectos fundamentais do pensamento de Schmitt, analisar-se-ão as concordâncias e as críticas de Strauss, especialmente acerca do critério de existência da política, ou seja, do critério que separa os homens entre amigos e inimigos, fundando a política. Strauss, fazendo uma releitura daquilo que Schmitt chamou de “pergunta de vida e morte”, demonstra como a pluralidade interna à comunidade, diferentemente daquilo que pensava Schmitt, é proveniente da natureza humana. Strauss, portanto, faz uma releitura da pergunta de vida e morte, estabelecendo a diferença fundamental entre aquilo que chama de Filosofia Política e a Teologia Política de Schmitt. Palavras-Chave: Filosofia política; Teologia Política; Leo Strauss; Carl Schmitt; O Conceito do Político. Abstract: The article explores the critics and comments of Leo Strauss on one of Carl Schmitt’s main books, titled The Concept of the Political. Under the assumption of a "hidden dialogue" between these two philosophers, and with the background of the dispute between Political Theology and Political Philosophy, fundamental aspects of Schmitt’s work are explored initially, framing it as an assertion of the political framework before the project of a modern depoliticizing individualistic liberalism. Once the fundamental aspects of Schmitt’s thoughts are understood, Strauss’ concordances and critiques are analyzed, especially regarding the politics existence criterion, i.e. the criterion that separates men between friends and foes, founding the politics. Strauss, reinterpreting what Schmitt called "question of life and death," demonstrates how community’s internal plurality, unlike what Schmitt thought, comes from human nature. Strauss therefore makes a rereading of the question of life and death, establishing the fundamental difference between what he calls Political Philosophy and Schmitt’s Political Theology Keywords: Political Philosophy; Political Theology; Leo Strauss; Carl Schmitt; The Concept of the Political.


Author(s):  
Carl-Henric Grenholm

The purpose of this article is to examine the contributions that might be given by Lutheran political theology to the discourse on global justice. The article offers a critical examination of three different theories of global justice within political philosophy. Contractarian theories are criticized, and a thesis is that it is plausible to argue that justice can be understood as liberation from oppression. From this perspective the article gives an analysis of an influential theory of justice within Lutheran ethics. According to this theory justice is not an equal distribution but an arrangement where the subordinate respect the authority of those in power. This theory is related to a sharp distinction between law and gospel. The main thesis of the article is that Lutheran political theology should take a different approach if it aims to give a constructive contribution to theories of justice. This means that Lutheran ethics should not be based on Creation and reason alone – it should also be based on Christology and Eschatology.


Author(s):  
Miguel Vatter

The ‘return of religion’ in the public sphere and the emergence of postsecular societies have propelled the discourse of political theology into the centre of contemporary democratic theory. This situation calls forth the question addressed in this book: Is a democratic political theology possible? Carl Schmitt first developed the idea of the Christian theological foundations of modern legal and political concepts in order to criticize the secular basis of liberal democracy. He employed political theology to argue for the continued legitimacy of the absolute sovereignty of the state against the claims raised by pluralist and globalized civil society. This book shows how, after Schmitt, some of the main political theorists of the 20th century, from Jacques Maritain to Jürgen Habermas, sought to establish an affirmative connection between Christian political theology, popular sovereignty, and the legitimacy of democratic government. In so doing, the political representation of God in the world was no longer placed in the hands of hierarchical and sovereign lieutenants (Church, Empire, Nation), but in a series of democratic institutions, practices and conceptions like direct representation, constitutionalism, universal human rights, and public reason that reject the primacy of sovereignty.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 211-234
Author(s):  
Wojciech Engelking

The author examines the critique of the epoch, which German philosopher of law and political theoretician Carl Schmitt worked out in the 1920s. Since this topic is present in most of Schmitt’s works from that period, author chose to discuss three, in which this subject isn’t considered on the margins, but on the foreground: a text  concerning the poem by Theodor Däubler Nordlicht, Political Romanticism and Age of Neutralizations and Depoliticizations. While the latter is well known in Poland, the first two – a little worse, as well as the whole reflection and biography of Carl Schmitt in that period. The consistency with which Schmitt engaged in the criticism of the times in which he lived, allows us to show how he was born as a political thinker: main ideas of his political theology have their source in the criticism of the era. In addition, the author presents criticism created by Schmitt on the background of that one developed by other thinkers, to point out the differences between this two approaches to the same epoch. The aim of the study is, first, to bring Polish reader closer to the not-so-well-studied period of Schmitt’s reflection and biography (by reaching beyond the above-mentioned works also to the journal of Carl Schmitt, as well as his youthful literary work Schattenrisse, written together with Fritz Eisler), secondly: to present Schmitt as an original thinker of his era.


2010 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-144
Author(s):  
Jürgen Fohrmann ◽  
Dimitris Vardoulakis

Living Law ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Miguel Vatter

This chapter situates Jewish political theology as a discourse developed in the 20th century, mainly by German Jewish thinkers. It sets out the basic differences between this analysis and the discourse on political theology developed by Carl Schmitt, centered on the need for absolute sovereignty to “restrain” disorder and revolutionary upheavals. The chapter argues that Jewish political theology offers an alternative conception of divine sovereignty and its implications for democracy and revolution. Jewish political theology is both republican and anarchic, attached to the idea of a higher law above human sovereignty and to the egalitarian ideal of a politics beyond domination. This chapter presents the two analytical-conceptual guiding-threads of the investigation. The first is concerned with Max Weber’s category of charismatic leadership and the problem of its functioning within a constitutional idea of democratic legitimacy. The second guiding-thread is concerned with the process of secularization. This chapter argues that Jewish political theology reconceives divine providence in order to criticize the assumption of human progress in and through history.


Living Law ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 191-236
Author(s):  
Miguel Vatter

This chapter is dedicated to Leo Strauss’s attempt to recover the medieval Islamic and Jewish conceptions of the prophet as a political founder of the perfect legal order. The chapter situates Strauss’s political theology within the Weimar debate between proponents of legality and defenders of an extra-legal conception of legitimacy. It argues that Strauss turns back to the ancient conception of law as nomos in order to give a philosophical foundation to legality beyond Christian conceptions of legitimacy. Christian political theology has always pivoted around the polemical claim that Mosaic law was “tyrannical” in some way. Strauss’s contribution to Jewish political theology consists in examining Jewish and Islamic prophetology by formulating it in terms of the so-called tyrannical teaching of Platonic political philosophy. The chapter shows that Strauss ultimately held to the view of a profound compatibility and mutual need between the traditions of Greek philosophy and biblical prophecy.


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