Hardback

eBook

Add to GoodReads

Democracy and the Divine

The Phenomenon of Political Romanticism

Alexandra Aidler

Advancing the thesis that a contract between the political members of a community must lead to the highest form of social inclusion, Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) has provided the groundwork for democracies around the world. Yet, Hobbes also states that this contract can only be upheld by a strong sovereign whose authority is derived from God. How can a democracy be defined, then, as truly inclusive when it essentially grows out of a theocracy that thinks about human beings in terms of “reduction”?

In Democracy and the Divine: The Phenomenon of Political Romanticism Alexandra Aidler argues that despite modern democracy’s problematic heritage, one should not abandon its claims to religion. Articulating a democracy that is based on the religious principle of giving oneself to another, Aidler develops a political theology of democracy that is built upon two traditions in political thought that have rarely been examined thus far side by side for their contributions to this field: German Romanticism, as exemplified by Franz von Baader and Friedrich Schlegel, and the “theological turn” in French philosophy, as represented by Jacques Derrida and Jacques Rancière.

Lexington Books

Pages: 258 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-4985-9828-6 • Hardback • October 2019 • $129.00 • (£99.00)

978-1-4985-9829-3 • eBook • October 2019 • $122.50 • (£95.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Political, Political Science / History & Theory, Religion / Judaism / General, Philosophy / Movements / Idealism

Democracy and the Divine

The Phenomenon of Political Romanticism

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Advancing the thesis that a contract between the political members of a community must lead to the highest form of social inclusion, Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) has provided the groundwork for democracies around the world. Yet, Hobbes also states that this contract can only be upheld by a strong sovereign whose authority is derived from God. How can a democracy be defined, then, as truly inclusive when it essentially grows out of a theocracy that thinks about human beings in terms of “reduction”?

In Democracy and the Divine: The Phenomenon of Political Romanticism Alexandra Aidler argues that despite modern democracy’s problematic heritage, one should not abandon its claims to religion. Articulating a democracy that is based on the religious principle of giving oneself to another, Aidler develops a political theology of democracy that is built upon two traditions in political thought that have rarely been examined thus far side by side for their contributions to this field: German Romanticism, as exemplified by Franz von Baader and Friedrich Schlegel, and the “theological turn” in French philosophy, as represented by Jacques Derrida and Jacques Rancière.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 258 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-4985-9828-6 • Hardback • October 2019 • $129.00 • (£99.00)

978-1-4985-9829-3 • eBook • October 2019 • $122.50 • (£95.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Political, Political Science / History & Theory, Religion / Judaism / General, Philosophy / Movements / Idealism

Author

Alexandra Aidler is an instructor at the European School Brussels III.

Table of Contents

Part I. Laws of Love and Laws of Giving: Franz von Baader’s and Friedrich Schlegel’s Political Philosophies

Chapter 1. The Romantic Critique of Modern Political Theology

Chapter 2. History without God’s Logos: On the Genesis of Ontological Power in Baader and Schlegel

Chapter 3. Restituting the Divine Logos: Baader and Schlegel on the Notion of the Recognition of Exteriority

Chapter 4. Politics of Consecration: The Path towards the Kingdom of God in Schlegel’s and Baader’s Late Writings

“Unus pastor, una grex”: An Interim Appraisal of Baader’s and Schlegel’s Teleological Politics of Absolute Inclusion

Part II. Philosophies of Forbearance: An Exploration of Present-day Democracies of Singularity

Chapter 5. Jacques Rancière’s “Passion for Equality”

Chapter 6. Democracy Beyond Politics in Derrida

Conclusion: A Final Appraisal of the Romantic Democracy of Exteriority

Reviews

Alexandra Aidler’s Democracy and the Divine sets new standards in political theology for comprehensiveness, rigor, and sheer philosophical insight. This is an essential book, one that no student of philosophy, religion or politics can safely overlook. It will be decades before this book is surpassed.
— Kevin Hart, Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, University of Virginia

Democracy and the Divine

The Phenomenon of Political Romanticism

Alexandra Aidler

Democracy and the Divine

The Phenomenon of Political Romanticism

ALSO AVAILABLE