Left Behind: The Messianic without Sovereignty

摘要

In his recent book The Weakness of God, deconstructionist theologian John Caputo proposes what he terms a theology of the event that rests on an alternative conception of transcendence wherein rather than God being identified with sovereign power, God is instead identified with everything the world casts out and leaves behind. By identifying with those who are left behind, the mark of the incarnate God remains on the one who was left for dead. The messianic, so conceived, far from being a title of power or exclusion, is instead a weak force indicated by God's solidarity with the poor and the outcast. By drawing on the critique of notions of sovereignty from Antonio Negri, Michael Hardt, Hent de Vries and Jacques Derrida, this article explores this alternative theological rendering of transcendence and the messianic specifically with an eye towards its possibilities for an alternative political theology to that of Carl Schmitt. Whereas Schmitt's political theology sanctions a legal order that rests upon the transcendent authority of the sovereign and, as such, provides one of the most scathing and influential critiques of modern liberal democracy, what if this transcendent authority were subjected to an immanent critique wherein the politico-theological concept of sovereignty has been displaced, if not rendered anachronistic, by the secularizing and democratizing forms of contemporary life? In this way, Schmitt's critique of liberalism need not be accompanied by the concomitant rejection of democracy; instead, the kingdom of God might be reconceived democratically as the rule of all by all and, thus, realize the secular promise of theology.