Mysticism and Sovereignty
From Katechontic to Mystical Political Theology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4314256 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vassilios Paipais (0000-0001-5564-3597, University of St Andrews, corresponding author), Theo Poward (0000-0001-6094-0721, University of St Andrews) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1012 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel16081012 |
| OpenAlex | W4412994855 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
This paper juxtaposes the katechontic political theology of modern sovereignty that sacrifices life in the name of its protection with a paradigm of mystical sovereignty whose purpose is to serve the power of life. Reclaiming the power and politicality not only of theology but also of an overlooked and denigrated discourse, such as mysticism, serves two purposes: it restores the true content of mystery and elucidates the political dimension of theology. Mysticism has been either unduly dismissed in secular modernity as obscurantist, or its meaning has been abused by modern sovereignty for the purpose of investing power with an air of transcendent legitimacy. The proper restoration of the meaning of mysticism may eventually help us reconstruct an alternative conception of sovereignty, one that inverses the attributes Schmitt associates with sovereign power: mastery, supreme potency, legitimate exercise of arbitrary violence. Such an alternative conception of sovereignty, as vulnerability, sacrifice, service, and potent powerlessness may then enable us to appreciate the resources mystical theology can contribute to rethinking the nature of the political and the political nature of theology
Mysticism · Political science · Political theology · Politics · Sovereignty · Theology · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
Political Theology Revisited
Carnal Hermeneutics
The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism
“Humbled onto Death”
Living Law
Carl Schmitt und die Lehre vom Katechon
The Theological Origins of Modernity
Mysticism
Creaturely Glory
Katechon
Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy
On Creaturely Life
Notes on the Sacred
Democratic Political Theology or Divine Democracy
Political Theology as Monarchical Thought
Carl Schmitt's Metapolitics
Carl Schmitt on Nomos and Space
Political Theology versus Theological Politics
The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume II
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |