"Only a God Can Resist a God." Political Theology between Polytheism and Gnosticism

Sovereignty - based on a claim to irresistible authority - and "speaking truth to power" (or parrhesia) are evidently opposed and yet they seem to have a strange affinity with one another, at least if one follows Foucault's last lectures on this motif of political philosophy. This art...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political theology
Main Author: Vatter, Miguel E. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2019]
In: Political theology
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Blumenberg, Hans 1920-1996 / Schmitt, Carl 1888-1985 / Political theology / Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 1749-1832 / Napoleon, I., Frankreich, Kaiser 1769-1821 / Meeting
IxTheo Classification:CG Christianity and Politics
KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
VA Philosophy
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Parrhesia
B Schmitt
B Polytheism
B Blumenberg
B Goethe
B Gnosticism
B Foucault
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Summary:Sovereignty - based on a claim to irresistible authority - and "speaking truth to power" (or parrhesia) are evidently opposed and yet they seem to have a strange affinity with one another, at least if one follows Foucault's last lectures on this motif of political philosophy. This article revisits Hans Blumenberg's reconstruction of the meeting between the German poet Goethe and the French emperor Napoleon as an example of a parrhesiastic encounter between philosophy and tyranny. The article situates Blumenberg's discussion of Goethe's pantheism and polytheism in the context of his ongoing polemic with Schmitt's conceptions of sovereignty and political theology. It argues that while both Blumenberg and Schmitt seek to offer responses to the Gnostic rejection of worldly power, a reading of Goethe in light of the discourse on parrhesia or frank speech lately revived by Foucault allows for the articulation of republican response to Gnosticism.
Item Description:Das gedruckte Heft ist als Doppelheft erschienen: "Volume 20, numbers 5/6, August-September 2019"
ISSN:1743-1719
Contains:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2019.1618597