There is Power in the Blog is hosting an eight-part discussion on Paul W. Kahn’s recent book Political Theology: Four…
There is Power in the Blog: Paul W. Kahn
Paul W. Kahn
Democracy under exception
I agree with Kahn (and with Schmitt) about the fact that political theory should leave room for decision and exception.…
Political theology and political existentialism
“At stake in our political life,” Paul Kahn observes, “has been not our capacity to be reasonable, but our capacity…
Paul Kahn’s mis-prognosis of America’s social imaginary
As I argued in my previous post, there are indications that Paul Kahn subscribes to Carl Schmitt’s belief in the…
Is sovereignty necessarily theological?
Paul Kahn's task, he says, is to describe and interpret, rather than demystify, America’s political theology. That political theology, he…
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 politics of the atonement
To grasp the deep architecture of the political today, therefore, is to venture into the theological domains of Christology and…
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 perspective of the common
In liberal theory, essence is privileged over existence, reason over will, and endless discussion over decision. In political theology, things…
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…