Instruments of immolation

Giorgio Agamben and the Eucharistic reformations of the sixteenth century

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3867979
AutoresKlaus C Yoder (0000-0002-8109-5720, Vassar College, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen9
Número1
Páginas48-64
Fecha de publicación2021-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCritical Research on Religion (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2050-3032 • E-ISSN: 2050-3040
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2050303220952877
OpenAlexW3080869401
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas20

Throughout the Homo Sacer series, Giorgio Agamben takes seriously the political and philosophical significance of Christian ritual in his archaeology of Western political discourse. In Opus Dei, Agamben argues for the sacrifice of the Mass as the paradigm for the ontology of effectivity, an ontology he sees as still regnant in the West. This ontology depends on the discourse of duty or office, and it begins with the priestly office. The priest's duty is to be an "animate instrument" in the Mass. However, Agamben's archaeology contains a massive gap between scholastic theology and Enlightenment political theory-the Protestant Reformation. I argue that Agamben's hypothesis requires attending to the reformation of the Mass. Examining the works of Luther and Zwingli, I show that in spite of their rejection of the priesthood, the discourse of duty and operativity not only persists but expands through their respective sacramental theologies

Art · Duty · Ecclesiology · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Literature · Ontology · Political philosophy · Political science · Political theology · Politics · Protestantism · Sacrifice · Theology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Law · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought