Overview

Tracing Walter Benjamin's convergences with, and divergences from, influential German legal theorist Carl Schmitt, this edited collection contextualizes Benjamin’s thinking in the intellectual currents of his time, while also placing him in dialogue with traditions and thinkers from antiquity to the present. At stake is whether Benjamin presents the possibility of a distinctive political theology—a question which the collection addresses without collapsing the tensions internal to Benjamin’s thought. Benjamin’s thought has been a touchstone, explicitly or implicitly, in numerous efforts to conceive of a ‘new’ political theology that is not anchored in legitimizing and preserving power, but in justice and liberation. Benjamin interrogates the political-theological complex from what may be construed as a vantage point opposed to Schmitt. Whereas Schmitt excavates the theological elements in modernity in order to shore up liberalism’s illiberal inheritance, Benjamin roots out these latent structures in order to dissolve them and liberate us from their oppressive legacy. This volume’s multifaceted contributions explore why Benjamin has been such a fertile source for thinking about political theology beyond – and often against – Schmitt. Benjamin indicates how existing political theologies can be challenged or expanded. This book accordingly makes a wide range of relevant work available for study whilst also opening new perspectives on Benjamin’s œuvre.

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9781350284340

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This volume persuasively shows us that political theology does not belong exclusively to authoritarian thinking, but also to its opposite. Those writings in which Benjamin departed from the authoritarian thinking of Schmitt have exercised a deep influence on contemporary political thought, and given the considerable challenges in accessing these texts, the work of these scholars helps to unearth a crucial vocabulary for the critique of authoritarianism in all its forms. * Nathan Ross, Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy, Adelphi University, USA * This is an excellent volume of outstanding breadth and depth. The collection assembles contributions by world-leading scholars, yielding a discussion that is both highly sophisticated and approachable. * Yael Almog, Associate Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University, UK *

This volume persuasively shows us that political theology does not belong exclusively to authoritarian thinking, but also to its opposite. Those writings in which Benjamin departed from the authoritarian thinking of Schmitt have exercised a deep influence on contemporary political thought, and given the considerable challenges in accessing these texts, the work of these scholars helps to unearth a crucial vocabulary for the critique of authoritarianism in all its forms. * Nathan Ross, Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy, Adelphi University, USA *

Author Information

Brendan Moran is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary, Canada. Paula Schwebel is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.

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