Does the sovereign exist? Robert Musil’s political theology

The paper discusses a possible political theological interpretation of arguments developed in Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities. What emerges is that Musil (or his characters) pose a fundamental challenge to the possibility of any real analogy between God and the political sovereign, as sugge...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of philosophy and theology
Main Author: Balázs, Zoltán 1966- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Taylor & Francis 2022
In: International journal of philosophy and theology
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Musil, Robert 1880-1942, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften / Anselm, Canterbury, Erzbischof, Heiliger 1033-1109 / Ruler / God
RelBib Classification:CG Christianity and Politics
KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
ZA Social sciences
Further subjects:B Sovereignty
B Robert Musil
B Political Theology
B Carl Schmitt
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:The paper discusses a possible political theological interpretation of arguments developed in Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities. What emerges is that Musil (or his characters) pose a fundamental challenge to the possibility of any real analogy between God and the political sovereign, as suggested by Carl Schmitt. At stake is Austria as a yet-to-be-born modern sovereign. However, the novel shows why attempts to conceive it in an image of God all fail. After surveying four such attempts, the main focus will be the discussion of Anselm of Canterbury’s existential argument in this secular context. At Diotima’s inspiration it is General von Bordwehr, a largely neglected figure, who makes the most serious attempt to argue for the political sovereign as the greatest conceivable thing. The argument is that greatness entails containing every idea and its opposite, and this yields the concept of order. But order means the frozen end of everything. Hence, instead of a living God, we end up with a political sovereign marked by death.
ISSN:2169-2335
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal of philosophy and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/21692327.2022.2127420