Trump and Political Theology: Unmaking Truth and Democracy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-300
Author(s):  
Jack David Eller
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

For millennia, a fundamental question of culture and law has been the relationship between religion and ruler, or more recently between church and state. Although the term “political theology” was not always known, the question remained and was answered in various ways: theocracy, the divine right of kings, the mandate of heaven, the rule of jurists, and so forth. Almost a century ago, Carl Schmitt revived political theology and reshaped it into a less theological and more political subject with his famous notions of sovereignty and the exception. Schmitt highlighted the eternal struggle between power or authority on the one hand and positive law and political institutions on the other, arguing that law can never entirely legitimize or constrain power or authority and that the real site and source of law is the moment of exception and of “the decision.” Trump and Political Theology applies this Schmittian lens to Donald Trump, an exceptional president who seems to use his executive and decision-making power to flaunt law and truth, to cripple and discredit institutions, and to bend reality to his will. The book considers first whether Trump is an aspiring Schmittian sovereign and therefore a threat to democracy. But it goes beyond Trump and Trumpism to critique and rethink political theology in the light of contemporary, especially populist and authoritarian, politics. Finally, it compels us to critique and rethink theology itself as a tool for understanding and organizing politics and society, restoring the relevance of myth and ritual and of pre-Christian and non-Christian characters like the shaman and the trickster for modern politics and social theory.

L'etica nella professione forense

2009 ◽  
pp. 163-172
Author(s):  
Angelo Abignente
Keyword(s):  
Public Interests ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
Conflicting Interests ◽  
Discursive Participation ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function ◽  
Role And Function

- The positive law tradition has hitherto had nothing to say about the legal profession's role and function, focusing more interest on questions of justice, of the legitimisation of power and of the genesis and organisation of normative material. This trend is now subject to a reversal promoted by new, neo-constitutionalist, narrativist, analytical and hermeneutic experiences, which no longer focuses attention on the moment when law is produced, but on the one when it is applied, reappraising and revitalising the function of the judge, of the attorneys and of other legal professionals. The attorney becomes an active protagonist, an intermediary not only between conflicting interests in a controversy, but also between opposing public interests, while the reappraisal of his role stimulates thinking about the ethical dimension of how the legal profession is practised. Referring to the theories of Habermas and of Alexy, the author treats the reasonable status of argumentation as the supreme ethical instance necessary for a decision that interferes in the sphere of another person's action. At the same time, however, the control of the reasonable status of the respective arguments on both sides is the ethical instance required of the attorneys taking part in the legal proceedings. It takes the form of compliance with the rules characteristic of the practical discourse, primarily the rule of free discursive participation that enables the onus of the argumentation to be explained. Ernesto de

Stasiology (Rothaug, Peterson, Schmitt, Gregory of Nazianzus)

2021 ◽  
pp. 280-300
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Bennington
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The One ◽  
The Trinity

Beginning with a curious invocation of our line from Homer by one of the defendants at the so-called “Justices Trial” at Nuremberg, the chapter analyses the famous exchange over “political theology” between Carl Schmitt and Erik Peterson. The inconsistencies of Peterson’s argument are brought out, and attention is drawn to the importance of the use he makes in establishing the supposed impossiblity of a Christian political theology of a quotation about the Trinity from Gregory of Nazianzus. Schmitt’s own claim as to a “stasiology” at the heart of the doctrine of the Trinity, that would support the thought of a political theology of Christianity, is shown to rely on an egregious misreading of Gregory’s text, but doubt is nonetheless cast on the ability of that doctrine successfully to solve the problems associated with the self-destructive properties of the One, as more clearly brought out by Derrida.

Israeli Law and Jewish Law — Interaction and Independence

1990 ◽  
Vol 24 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 507-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brahyahu Lifshitz
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

Jewish law is an independent legal system embracing most of the subjects to be found in any system of positive law. The hopes and efforts of many people notwithstanding, Israeli law is not identical to Jewish law, nor does it constitute one of its branches. The generally accepted view is that Jewish law is not influenced, nor affected in any way, by the acts of the Israeli legislature or judiciary. There is, however, little doubt that to a certain extent, Israeli law is influenced by Jewish law. It is therefore a legitimate exercise to discuss the nature of the relationship between the two systems from the point of view of Israeli law. We may also comment upon the amount of satisfaction or disappointment which may legitimately be felt, on the one hand, by those in favour of reinforcing the relationship between the two systems and making it stronger and more active and, on the other, by those opposed to such a relationship. It should also be observed that the interrelationship between Israeli and Jewish law is not only to be perceived from the standpoint of pure law. Any discussion of this question involves issues of a political, religious and social nature; a study focussing on the bare legal facts alone would provide a necessarily distorted picture.

Kształcenie w perspektywie filozofii obcości Bernharda Waldenfelsa

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (3 (249)) ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Antonia Sochaczewska
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Double Structure ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

The paper considers the question of relationship between Bernhard Waldenfels’s phenomenology of the alien and education. In the first part it presents the character of the experience of the alien developed by the German thinker, underlining its double structure – the stage of shock and surprise with the alien and the moment of response to its “demand”, which philosopher relates to a certain sort of ethics. In the second part, the article establishes the relationship between the Waldenfels’s experience of the alien and a transformative mode of learning understood as the one that makes a place for categories of unexpected and desired in education, allows for subjectivity formation and strengthens critical thinking. The last part of the text addresses a question of the place of transformative Bildung based on Waldenfels’s phenomenological analysis of the alien in the contemporary neoliberal landscape with its shift towards functional, instrumentalist and consumer-based modes of teaching.

scholarly journals The effect of political trust and trust in European citizens on European identity

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soetkin Verhaegen ◽  
Marc Hooghe ◽  
Ellen Quintelier
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Identity ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Institutional Approach ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

In the literature, two approaches toward the development of a European identity can be distinguished. Society-based approaches assume that the most important foundation for the development of a European identity is trust toward other European citizens as this allows Europeans to identify with the European Union as a community of citizens and values. The institutional approach, on the other hand, assumes that a shared European identity is predominantly based on trust in political institutions. In this paper, we use the results of the IntUne Mass Survey 2009 (n=16,613 in 16 EU member states) to test the relationship between social and political trust on the one hand, and European identity on the other. The results suggest that trust in other European citizens is positively associated with European identity, but trust in the European political institutions has a stronger relation with European identity. This could imply that efforts to strengthen European identity cannot just rely on a bottom-up approach, but should also pay attention to the effectiveness and the visibility of the EU institutions and the way they are being perceived by European citizens.

Non-deliberative politics in deliberative democracy: distinct approaches for different actors

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Felicetti
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Deliberative System ◽  
Deliberative Politics ◽  
The One ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
The Relationship

This article advances one of the most important debates in recent scholarship on democratic theory: the one on deliberative systems. In the wake of the systemic turn deliberative scholars agree that not all components of a deliberative system can or even need to be deliberative. However, there is little clarity about the role of non-deliberative politics in a system and to what extent these are justifiable while we seek a more deliberative society. In this paper I first illustrate the main ideas of the systemic turn, explore the distinction between ‘deliberative’ and ‘non-deliberative’ politics and investigate the main arguments justifying non-deliberative politics. Then, I build upon these arguments to shed new light on the relationship between deliberative and non-deliberative politics. I identify three distinctive actors in deliberative systems (political institutions, empowered agents, and public space actors). Finally, I argue that deliberative democrats should adopt three different approaches (intensive, moderate, and free) in order to assess whether the use of non-deliberative politics by each of these actors is legitimate.

scholarly journals Political Theology Revisited: Carl Schmitt's Postwar Reassessment

Konturen ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter U. Hohendahl
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Hans Blumenberg ◽  
Theological Turn ◽  
The Relationship

The essay examines the pronounced theological turn of the late Carl Schmitt, especially in his Politische Theologie II (1970). He aim is to understand what Schmitt meant by a “Catholic intensification” in the relationship between theology and political theory. The essay gives equal attention to Schmitt’s polemic against the theologian Peterson, who denied the possibility of political theology, and the dialogue with the philosopher Hans Blumenberg, who had severely criticized Schmitt’s conception of secularization. The essay shows that in both instances the opposition merely encouraged Schmitt to sharpen and clarify his own theological position, which includes heretical Gnostic elements.

scholarly journals Leading Change with the Heart: Exploring the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership in the Era of Covid-19 Pandemic Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Carlton Brown ◽  
◽  
Uzoechi Nwagbara ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Effective Leadership ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Business Organisation ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

In recent decades, effective leadership theorising, perceptions and studies have shifted attention to interpersonal skills and the leader’s capacity to inspire, encourage and motivate subordinates as well as create and maintain a sense of positive contribution to the whole of the organisation. This conceptualisation is in sharp contrast to prior studies and conceptualisations resonating with controlling, planning and target-oriented leadership. Consequently, this article takes as its premise the relationship between emotional intelligence (leading with the heart) and transformational leadership within the purview of COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic challenges. It is thus argued here that in times of crisis that humanity (and the organisation specifically) is faced with at the moment unleashed by COVID-19 pandemic challenges, a style of leadership that takes as its focal point emotional intelligence mediated by transformational leadership can be instrumental in leading business organisation through this epoch. The methodology used here is steeped in cursory look at prior, relevant literature on these phenomena and how it helps to inform a conceptual framework that could help in shedding new light on how to confront the challenges of Covid-19 through effective leadership. This paper concludes that in times of crisis – particularly the one ushered in by Covid-19 – a medley of emotional intelligence and transformational leadership is necessary to drive effective change for organisation, which would help them to bounce back and operate profitably and sustainably.

scholarly journals SOVEREIGNTY AS A MOTOR OF GLOBAL CONCEPTUAL TRAVEL: SANSKRITIC EQUIVALENTS OF “LAW” IN BENGALI DISCURSIVE PRODUCTION

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 487-506
Author(s):  
MILINDA BANERJEE
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Lower Caste ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
Legal Concepts ◽  
Conceptual Translation ◽  
Global Travel

How may one imagine the global travel of legal concepts, thinking through models of diffusion and translation, as well as through obstruction, negation, and dialectical transfiguration? This article offers some reflections by interrogating discourses (intertextually woven with Sanskritic invocations) produced by three celebrated Bengalis: the nationalist littérateur Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (1838–94), the Rajavamshi “lower-caste” peasant leader Panchanan Barma (1866–1935), and the international jurist Radhabinod Pal (1886–1967). These actors evidently took part in projects of vernacularizing (and thereby globalizing through linguistic–conceptual translation) legal–political frameworks of state sovereignty. They produced ideas of nexus between sovereignty, law, and “divine” lawgiving activity, which resemble as well as diverge from notions of political theology associated with the German jurist Carl Schmitt. Simultaneously, these actors critiqued coercive impositions of state-backed positive law and sovereign violence, often in the name of globally oriented concepts of “ethical”/natural law, theology, and capacious forms of solidarity, including categories like “all beings,” “self/soul,” “humanity,” and “world.” I argue that “sovereignty,” as a metonym for concrete practices of power as well as a polyvalent conceptual signifier, thus dialectically provoked the globalization of modern legal intellection, including in the extra-European world.

Religious Offences in Italy: Recent Laws Concerning Blasphemy and Sport

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Gianfreda
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The Third ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Remarks ◽  
The One ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship

Religious offences in Italy, as in many European countries, have a long and complex history that is intertwined with the events in the history of the relationship between church and state and the institutional and constitutional framework of a nation.This article is divided into three parts. The first part aims to offer some historical remarks concerning the rules on the contempt of religion and blasphemy in Italian criminal law from the end of the 19th century to the present day. The second part focuses on changes to the law on vilification introduced in 2006 and the third part deals with the recent developments in blasphemy law in the context of sport.The article shows that, on the one hand, reforms of the offences grouped under vilification of religion are anachronistic and do not stand up against the religious freedom of individuals, yet on the other, despite the traditional rules for the protection of religion being considered obsolete, they are applied in new areas of law, for example sport, and are used to curb bad manners and bad behaviour. The relationship between the new functions of these criminal rules and the traditional ones, however, remains uncertain and fluctuating, and reveals a moralistic approach to religious offences.

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