Witchcraft, Human Nature, and Political Theology in Jean Bodin’s de la Démonomanie des sorciers

Jean Bodin (1530-1596) is most well-known as the thinker Carl Schmitt credits for modern absolutist sovereignty and political theology. Contemporary critics of sovereignty, following Schmitt, ascribe to Bodin a theological politics of obedience and the negation of individual and collective human fre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political theology
Main Author: Power, Catherine R. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2020]
In: Political theology
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Bodin, Jean 1529-1596, De la démonomanie des sorciers / Political theology / Theological anthropology
RelBib Classification:KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history
NBE Anthropology
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Sovereignty
B Free Will
B Witchcraft
B démonomanie
B Bodin
B Political anthropology
B Political Theology
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Jean Bodin (1530-1596) is most well-known as the thinker Carl Schmitt credits for modern absolutist sovereignty and political theology. Contemporary critics of sovereignty, following Schmitt, ascribe to Bodin a theological politics of obedience and the negation of individual and collective human freedom through authoritarian discipline (Cocks, Joan. On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014). Yet, a dedicated study of Bodin’s own political theology remains wanting. His most extensive discussion of theology and law is in his more obscure work on the jurisprudence of witchcraft. In de la Démonomanie des sorciers (1580), Bodin provides a theological account of a divinely created rational order where benevolence and evil are at work in the world. Humans must exercise the free will to choose between them. Bodin’s theological anthropology anchors his political theology with important implications for the proper exercise of human political power within the natural and divine order.
ISSN:1743-1719
Contains:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2020.1731064