Massimo Cacciari
Alessandro Carrera (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823267163
- eISBN:
- 9780823274840
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823267163.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The European Union and the single currency have given Europe more stability than it has ever known in the last thousand years, yet Europe seems to be in perpetual crisis and “unshakably undecided,” ...
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The European Union and the single currency have given Europe more stability than it has ever known in the last thousand years, yet Europe seems to be in perpetual crisis and “unshakably undecided,” so to speak, when it comes to defining its stand in the world arena. To the Asians, Europe was once the Land of Sunset, the place where exiles took refuge. Many empires had their day in Europe. In the end, however, they all bowed down to the multiplicity of ethnicities, traditions, and civilizations that have shaped the continent. Europe will never be One, but to survive as a union, it will have to become a federation of “islands,” both distinct and connected. Written between 1994 and 2012, the essays included in Europe and Empire hark back to the dawn of Europe in the light of today’s sunset. Drawing freely from Ramon Llull, Nicolaus of Cusa, Hegel, Nietzsche, Schmitt, Kojève, Hannah Arendt, and María Zambrano, Cacciari questions the juridical structure of the Roman Empire, the destiny of Christianity, and the inevitability of secularization. Cacciari’s assessment of Europe comes down to the advice: Do not resist the sunset, embrace it. Europe will have to “let go” of itself and open up to the very possibility that in a few generations new exiles and an unpredictable cultural hybridism will change (again!) all we know about European legacy. This is hardly happening today, yet the political unity of Europe is still a necessity, no matter how impossible it seems to achieve.Less
The European Union and the single currency have given Europe more stability than it has ever known in the last thousand years, yet Europe seems to be in perpetual crisis and “unshakably undecided,” so to speak, when it comes to defining its stand in the world arena. To the Asians, Europe was once the Land of Sunset, the place where exiles took refuge. Many empires had their day in Europe. In the end, however, they all bowed down to the multiplicity of ethnicities, traditions, and civilizations that have shaped the continent. Europe will never be One, but to survive as a union, it will have to become a federation of “islands,” both distinct and connected. Written between 1994 and 2012, the essays included in Europe and Empire hark back to the dawn of Europe in the light of today’s sunset. Drawing freely from Ramon Llull, Nicolaus of Cusa, Hegel, Nietzsche, Schmitt, Kojève, Hannah Arendt, and María Zambrano, Cacciari questions the juridical structure of the Roman Empire, the destiny of Christianity, and the inevitability of secularization. Cacciari’s assessment of Europe comes down to the advice: Do not resist the sunset, embrace it. Europe will have to “let go” of itself and open up to the very possibility that in a few generations new exiles and an unpredictable cultural hybridism will change (again!) all we know about European legacy. This is hardly happening today, yet the political unity of Europe is still a necessity, no matter how impossible it seems to achieve.
Massimo Cacciari
Alessandro Carrera (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823267163
- eISBN:
- 9780823274840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823267163.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
After the end of the great conflicts of the twentieth century, the State (meaning the State according to the European model) is assuming more and more the role of the katechon, the power that “holds ...
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After the end of the great conflicts of the twentieth century, the State (meaning the State according to the European model) is assuming more and more the role of the katechon, the power that “holds back,” elusively mentioned by Paul in his 2 Thessalonians. By turning to merely administrative functions, the State undergoes a process of de-politicization that nonetheless preserves, as much as it is possible, the status quo against the creative-destructive forces of globalization. What politics beyond the State? That has become the dominant political problem of our era. Neither Ernst Jünger’s World State nor Alexandre Kojève’s Latin Empire are viable forms. The Roman form of an empire established on a pact among citizens and a constant widening of citizenship could still be workable, but the only power existing today that could be capable of such a vision, namely the United States, relies on technology and focused military interventions rather than “great politics.” Europe, which could still play a vital role, lacks the political will and its political subject is still missing.Less
After the end of the great conflicts of the twentieth century, the State (meaning the State according to the European model) is assuming more and more the role of the katechon, the power that “holds back,” elusively mentioned by Paul in his 2 Thessalonians. By turning to merely administrative functions, the State undergoes a process of de-politicization that nonetheless preserves, as much as it is possible, the status quo against the creative-destructive forces of globalization. What politics beyond the State? That has become the dominant political problem of our era. Neither Ernst Jünger’s World State nor Alexandre Kojève’s Latin Empire are viable forms. The Roman form of an empire established on a pact among citizens and a constant widening of citizenship could still be workable, but the only power existing today that could be capable of such a vision, namely the United States, relies on technology and focused military interventions rather than “great politics.” Europe, which could still play a vital role, lacks the political will and its political subject is still missing.
Massimo Cacciari
Alessandro Carrera (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823267163
- eISBN:
- 9780823274840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823267163.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The term katechon (“he who holds back” or “that which holds back”) appears in Saint Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians. The passage has generated a substantial literature from the early ...
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The term katechon (“he who holds back” or “that which holds back”) appears in Saint Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians. The passage has generated a substantial literature from the early Fathers of the Church up to Carl Schmitt who resurrected the term in the twentieth century. The katechon is the power that holds back the triumph of the iniquity that will be followed by the Second Coming of Christ. Therefore, the katechon slows down the apocalypse. Cacciari joins the ranks of Schmitt scholars and Italian philosophers such as Roberto Esposito and Giorgio Agamben in applying the katechon to political theory with a strong historico-genealogical approach. He reviews all the most important assessments of the katechon to conclude that the katechon is very likely to be the Church itself, which in its coming to terms with secular political institutions always needs “more time” before the end of time.Less
The term katechon (“he who holds back” or “that which holds back”) appears in Saint Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians. The passage has generated a substantial literature from the early Fathers of the Church up to Carl Schmitt who resurrected the term in the twentieth century. The katechon is the power that holds back the triumph of the iniquity that will be followed by the Second Coming of Christ. Therefore, the katechon slows down the apocalypse. Cacciari joins the ranks of Schmitt scholars and Italian philosophers such as Roberto Esposito and Giorgio Agamben in applying the katechon to political theory with a strong historico-genealogical approach. He reviews all the most important assessments of the katechon to conclude that the katechon is very likely to be the Church itself, which in its coming to terms with secular political institutions always needs “more time” before the end of time.
Ryan Coyne
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226209302
- eISBN:
- 9780226209449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226209449.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter provides a detailed look at Heidegger’s 1920–1921 course entitled “Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion,” in which the writings of the apostle Paul play a crucial role. Setting ...
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This chapter provides a detailed look at Heidegger’s 1920–1921 course entitled “Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion,” in which the writings of the apostle Paul play a crucial role. Setting this course in its philosophical context, it argues not only that Heidegger turned to Paul’s earliest writings in search of a novel understanding of temporality, but that the eschatological model of temporality Heidegger equated with Christian religiosity revolves curiously around the Pauline “katechon”-an obscure figured identified in the Second Letter to the Thessalonians as “holding back” the Second Coming of Christ. In demonstrating that Heidegger’s Paul lays the blame for the delay in Christ’s return squarely upon the Christian believer, this chapter contends that Heidegger’s initial readings of Christian theological sources, and his focus on eschatology, generates an extreme version of personal guilt that ultimately haunts his subsequent attempts to describe selfhood and human existence philosophically in terms of being-guilty.Less
This chapter provides a detailed look at Heidegger’s 1920–1921 course entitled “Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion,” in which the writings of the apostle Paul play a crucial role. Setting this course in its philosophical context, it argues not only that Heidegger turned to Paul’s earliest writings in search of a novel understanding of temporality, but that the eschatological model of temporality Heidegger equated with Christian religiosity revolves curiously around the Pauline “katechon”-an obscure figured identified in the Second Letter to the Thessalonians as “holding back” the Second Coming of Christ. In demonstrating that Heidegger’s Paul lays the blame for the delay in Christ’s return squarely upon the Christian believer, this chapter contends that Heidegger’s initial readings of Christian theological sources, and his focus on eschatology, generates an extreme version of personal guilt that ultimately haunts his subsequent attempts to describe selfhood and human existence philosophically in terms of being-guilty.
Nicholas Heron
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474402637
- eISBN:
- 9781474422390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474402637.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter illuminates Agamben’s understanding of time, which is central to his ‘messianic’ approach to politics, by tracing the semantic history of the term aion (which gives rise to the modern ...
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This chapter illuminates Agamben’s understanding of time, which is central to his ‘messianic’ approach to politics, by tracing the semantic history of the term aion (which gives rise to the modern ‘eternity’). Heron shows that aion initially referred to an immanent life force before gradually shifted in meaning to denote an unending duration associated with a transcendent and unchanging being. This latter understanding of eternity became central to the Church, which justified its existence on the basis that the messianic event was delayed (a vision that was secularised by the modern state). The link that Agamben draws between eternal life and the ‘coming politics’ in the final pages of The Kingdom and Glory is an attempt to undermine this institutionalise the messianic event and restore the idea of eternity for use in the present.Less
This chapter illuminates Agamben’s understanding of time, which is central to his ‘messianic’ approach to politics, by tracing the semantic history of the term aion (which gives rise to the modern ‘eternity’). Heron shows that aion initially referred to an immanent life force before gradually shifted in meaning to denote an unending duration associated with a transcendent and unchanging being. This latter understanding of eternity became central to the Church, which justified its existence on the basis that the messianic event was delayed (a vision that was secularised by the modern state). The link that Agamben draws between eternal life and the ‘coming politics’ in the final pages of The Kingdom and Glory is an attempt to undermine this institutionalise the messianic event and restore the idea of eternity for use in the present.
Sergei Prozorov
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423632
- eISBN:
- 9781474438520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423632.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
The work of Carl Schmitt has been a key influence on Agamben’s work, particularly his more political writings. Especially in the Anglo-American context, the discovery of Agamben’s work after the ...
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The work of Carl Schmitt has been a key influence on Agamben’s work, particularly his more political writings. Especially in the Anglo-American context, the discovery of Agamben’s work after the publication of the first volume of Homo Sacer coincided with a major revival of interest in Schmitt, both of which were partly motivated by the exceptionalist tendencies in US domestic and foreign policy in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. At least in the first wave of reception of Agamben’s writings,1 his reinterpretation of Schmitt’s theory of sovereignty in the Foucauldian biopolitical key was the best-known and most controversial aspect of his work. And yet Schmitt has been a strange kind of influence. His work hardly influenced Agamben philosophically, as Heidegger’s and Benjamin’s did on the level of ontology or method. Agamben did not try to ‘correct or complete’ Schmitt the way he did with Foucault’s work on biopolitics and government. Finally, Agamben did not really debate with or criticise Schmitt’s theories the way he did with Derrida. While Schmitt’s political thought was certainly employed in a variety of ways after Homo Sacer, Schmitt was not really engaged with as a philosophical interlocutor.
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The work of Carl Schmitt has been a key influence on Agamben’s work, particularly his more political writings. Especially in the Anglo-American context, the discovery of Agamben’s work after the publication of the first volume of Homo Sacer coincided with a major revival of interest in Schmitt, both of which were partly motivated by the exceptionalist tendencies in US domestic and foreign policy in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. At least in the first wave of reception of Agamben’s writings,1 his reinterpretation of Schmitt’s theory of sovereignty in the Foucauldian biopolitical key was the best-known and most controversial aspect of his work. And yet Schmitt has been a strange kind of influence. His work hardly influenced Agamben philosophically, as Heidegger’s and Benjamin’s did on the level of ontology or method. Agamben did not try to ‘correct or complete’ Schmitt the way he did with Foucault’s work on biopolitics and government. Finally, Agamben did not really debate with or criticise Schmitt’s theories the way he did with Derrida. While Schmitt’s political thought was certainly employed in a variety of ways after Homo Sacer, Schmitt was not really engaged with as a philosophical interlocutor.
Peter Uwe Hohendahl
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781501726545
- eISBN:
- 9781501730665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501726545.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The fifth chapter goes back to Schmitt’s 1922 Political Theology to frame the author’s late return to this theme. The chapter argues that this return underscores the centrality of political theology ...
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The fifth chapter goes back to Schmitt’s 1922 Political Theology to frame the author’s late return to this theme. The chapter argues that this return underscores the centrality of political theology for Schmitt’s late work in general. It means to show that Schmitt in his debate with the theologian Erik Peterson and the philosopher Hans Blumenberg in Political Theology II emphasizes the need for theological foundations. They can be found in the New Testament. As a consequence, he stresses the continued relevance of political theology.Less
The fifth chapter goes back to Schmitt’s 1922 Political Theology to frame the author’s late return to this theme. The chapter argues that this return underscores the centrality of political theology for Schmitt’s late work in general. It means to show that Schmitt in his debate with the theologian Erik Peterson and the philosopher Hans Blumenberg in Political Theology II emphasizes the need for theological foundations. They can be found in the New Testament. As a consequence, he stresses the continued relevance of political theology.
Michael Hagemeister
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814748923
- eISBN:
- 9780814748930
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814748923.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter highlights the role that the Russian Sergei Nilus played in framing the Protocols in a religious and apocalyptic discourse. Nilus, for a long time, was not a religious man, but ...
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This chapter highlights the role that the Russian Sergei Nilus played in framing the Protocols in a religious and apocalyptic discourse. Nilus, for a long time, was not a religious man, but eventually he “succumbed to the apocalyptic mood that was that was taking hold of the country.” Rising to prominence with his historical writings (both his own and epigraphic), Nilus had a broad antimodern reading public that relished “Doomsday scenarios” as the answer to revolution brought on by Jews and Freemasons—henchmen of the Antichrist. Indeed, as Nilus presented it, the text was an apocalypse, a revelation: its publication revealed the workings of Paul's katéchon (the mystery of lawlessness), and the text sounded the alarm at the imminent appearance of Antichrist.Less
This chapter highlights the role that the Russian Sergei Nilus played in framing the Protocols in a religious and apocalyptic discourse. Nilus, for a long time, was not a religious man, but eventually he “succumbed to the apocalyptic mood that was that was taking hold of the country.” Rising to prominence with his historical writings (both his own and epigraphic), Nilus had a broad antimodern reading public that relished “Doomsday scenarios” as the answer to revolution brought on by Jews and Freemasons—henchmen of the Antichrist. Indeed, as Nilus presented it, the text was an apocalypse, a revelation: its publication revealed the workings of Paul's katéchon (the mystery of lawlessness), and the text sounded the alarm at the imminent appearance of Antichrist.
Michele Nicoletti
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198805878
- eISBN:
- 9780191843778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198805878.003.0016
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Legal History
Carl Schmitt’s thought on international relations appears from the outset to be profoundly informed by his reflections on the philosophy of history. In this the German jurist seems to be fully ...
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Carl Schmitt’s thought on international relations appears from the outset to be profoundly informed by his reflections on the philosophy of history. In this the German jurist seems to be fully consonant with the climate of his time, of that generation which saw the 19th century ‘concert of Europe’ crumble beneath their feet into the great tragedy of European civil war which began with the First World War. The collapse of the world order thus almost inevitably leads him to question the meaning of history and to be influenced by the ideas of the end of the world and of history, and by the symbols and metaphors connected to this theme, which have been part of Western culture for centuries.Less
Carl Schmitt’s thought on international relations appears from the outset to be profoundly informed by his reflections on the philosophy of history. In this the German jurist seems to be fully consonant with the climate of his time, of that generation which saw the 19th century ‘concert of Europe’ crumble beneath their feet into the great tragedy of European civil war which began with the First World War. The collapse of the world order thus almost inevitably leads him to question the meaning of history and to be influenced by the ideas of the end of the world and of history, and by the symbols and metaphors connected to this theme, which have been part of Western culture for centuries.
