The book addresses the question of the extent to which theological discourse has been and is relevant to the origins of the meanings, symbols, and realities of some instituted political practices. This relevance has historically manifested itself in the hybridisation of theological and political concepts, images, gestures, and rituals. Indeed, some divine traces could be seen as embedded in institutionalised political practices. Theopolitical figures, then, are other names for God - in the sense of negative theology - that we find in instituted practices within the political realm. The book considers five theopolitical figures: scripture, prophecy, oath, charisma, and hospitality. In the symbolic meaning of these figures, we discern some central questions for contemporary societies, among them: the unconditional character of justice, the unfeasibility of historical expectation, the stability of the given word, the idea of power as a gift, and openness to the coming other as an ethical-political imperative.

About the Author
Montserrat Herrero is Professor of Political Philosophy and Principal Investigator of the Research Group Religion and Civil Society at the Institute Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra (Spain). She is the director of the Journal Anuario Filosofico. She is widely published in topics related to the political philosophy, in particular, on Hegel, Hobbes, Locke and Spinoza. She is the author of Le Sacre et la Parole. Le Serment au Moyen Age, with M. Aurell and J. Aurell (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2018); Political Theology in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Discourses, Rites and Representations with Aurell, J., Miceli, A. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017) and The Political Discourse of Carl Schmitt. A Mystic of Order (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).

Reviews
An indispensable cartography for the overlap of three vital areas: the field of political theology, the state of the post-secular theological turn in philosophy, and the rethinking of community from the standpoint of the gift. * Elettra Stimilli, Sapienza University of Rome *
The relationship between the sacred and the civil defines the stakes of a postsecular era. Montserrat Herrero's new book is a significant contribution to rethinking the political as a figure of the divine and the divine as the apophatic engine of the political. The booming literature on political theology is enriched with an indispensable volume. * Vassilios Paipais, University of St Andrews *



Book Information
ISBN 9781399522892
Author Montserrat Herrero
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Edinburgh University Press
Publisher Edinburgh University Press