On the Theological Legitimacy of Democracy
Journal Title: Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy - Year 2011, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
The following study attempts to inquire on the possibility of a theological discourse on democracy. It reflects, first of all, the multiple forms of the political theology and describes one specific scenario, that of a hermeneutical relation between the two poles. The next step is to identify concrete historical forms of this relation and depicts two main possibilities: the ideological religious legitimation of the political (Schmitt) and the messianic vocation as original tension that makes possible both discourses (Agamben). Two ways of conceiving democracy are further discussed: the “ideological” democracy and the “dialectical” form, that assume the absolute transcendence of its subjects.
Authors and Affiliations
Ioan Tofan
The Curse of the Righter of Wrongs, the Goat and the Prophet: Elements for a Theory of the Theologico-Political Ways of Subjectivation
This paper reflects on the relation between psychiatric institutions and political thought. Starting from the distinction made by G. de Clérambault between interpretation and passionate deliria, we aim at identifying two...
Being born from the world and being born to the world: Merleau-Ponty / Patočka
The phenomenon of birth is here to be presented as a crucial one, discreet though, into Merleau-Ponty and Patočka’s philosophy. So it deserves a confrontation of their respective thoughts. Both of them have radicalised H...
Derrida, Foucault and “Madness, the Absence of an Œuvre”
This article argues that Foucault's 1964 paper “La folie, l'absence d'œuvre” ought to be understood as a response to Derrida's 1963 paper “Cogito et histoire de la folie”. I clarify the chronology of the exchange between...
Tradition et distance temporelle : « de la justesse de la compréhension » chez Hans-Georg Gadamer
In this paper, I will discuss Gadamer’s attempt to reach to a deeper dimension of truth, situated beneath the scientific objectivity and independent from methodological criteria. If the truth finds its core in tradition,...
From Phenomenology to Theology: You Spin Me Round
Bruce Ellis Benson, Norman Wirzba (eds.), Words of Life: New Theological Turns in French Phenomenology, New York: Fordham University Press, 2010