When modern revolutionaries took up the task of translating the felt meaning of political revolution into a constitutional order of…
Political theology and liberalism
Book blog
Scholars from varying disciplines engage in critical discussions of recent books. Additionally, scholars introduce their books with an original essay or, occasionally, an original essay reviews an important new book, connecting it to other threads of conversation in the academy and beyond.
You can read our very first book forum, on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age and the continued discussion around Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age here.
Pluralizing political theology
My claim and concern is not only that Kahn is captured by Schmitt’s particular view of political theology as a…
Mirror, mirror on the wall
After the manner of psychoanalysis, political theology reflects the larger, darker, contours that liberalism—the discourse of the modern nation-state—fails to…
The perspective of the common
In liberal theory, essence is privileged over existence, reason over will, and endless discussion over decision. In political theology, things…
The geopolitical imperative?
Ritualistic evocations of "America" . . . and the deep-seated sense that somehow the United States is sacrosanct space—war, by…
Paul Kahn’s roots
Paul W. Kahn's Political Theology: Four New Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty is a compelling book, though compelling in…
The politics of the atonement
To grasp the deep architecture of the political today, therefore, is to venture into the theological domains of Christology and…
The political theology of freedom and unfreedom
Kahn has identified an ideal---the sacrificial ideal of freedom---that exists both as an ideal and at times in practice. And…
The integrity of theory
I am delighted that my new book on political theology has provided the occasion for this conversation. The editors have…
Political theology or political hierophany
In this book, Paul Kahn argues that political theology---as first defined by Schmitt---is not only a “polemical” discourse but also…