Corpus Mysticum to Luridicum
Prasanta Chakravarty
POLITICAL THEOLOGY: FOUR CHAPTERS ON THE CONCEPT OF SOVEREIGNTY by Carl Schmitt The University of Chicago Press, 2007, 70 pp., $13.00
January 2007, volume 31, No 1

Few works of political philosophy in the last century can equal this thin volume under review. And few works can claim equal relevance in helping us to understand the motivations behind some key geo-political (mis) adventures of the present century so far. Carl Schmitt, the leading constitutional jurist of the Weimar Republic, charts the bedrock principles of illiberalism, principles that have driven the theologically motivated radical forces, both of the right and the left for centuries. One must take Schmitt seriously. Merely dismissing him as a counter-revolutionary and reactionary because he had actively participated in the Nazi adventure (much like Martin Heidegger) between 1933 through 1936 is both premature and dangerous.

Continue reading this review