Messianic Time Again: On Abolition and Liberalism in Crisis
Both its advocates and its opponents depicted the abolition of chattel slavery as apocalyptic. This essay works through the archive of abolitionist rhetoric to examine ways that activists improvised with messianic modes of thought and constituted abolition as a philosophy of history. The prophetic p...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Political theology
Year: 2025, Volume: 26, Issue: 5, Pages: 585-598 |
| Further subjects: | B
black studies
B Messianism B Zionism B Liberalism B Abolition |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Both its advocates and its opponents depicted the abolition of chattel slavery as apocalyptic. This essay works through the archive of abolitionist rhetoric to examine ways that activists improvised with messianic modes of thought and constituted abolition as a philosophy of history. The prophetic posture of abolitionists suggests that although the relation between abolition and liberalism might appear revelatory, it is fundamentally perennial. To conclusively demonstrate this argument, I turn to later iterations of Black liberation, especially the movement to end mass incarceration in the U.S., and its solidaristic connection with the movement for a free Palestine. This last development provides an occasion to think more broadly about abolition across the long-durational geo-politics of Judeo-Christian eschatology. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-1719 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Political theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2025.2521576 |
