Sovereignty Over Communion: Heterodox Salvation in Hobbes’s Leviathan
This essay argues for a new understanding of Hobbes’s idiosyncratic depiction of eschatology in Leviathan, and for its relationship to his depiction of sovereignty. In his radical portrayal of salvation, the highest good is maintenance of physical existence free of physical harm. Communion with God...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
2023
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| In: |
Political theology
Year: 2023, Volume: 24, Issue: 4, Pages: 384-400 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Hobbes, Thomas 1588-1679, Leviathan
/ Sovereignty
/ God
/ Salvation
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history NBC Doctrine of God NBQ Eschatology |
| Further subjects: | B
Sovereignty
B Salvation B Experience B Hobbes B Leviathan B Affects B Eschatology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay argues for a new understanding of Hobbes’s idiosyncratic depiction of eschatology in Leviathan, and for its relationship to his depiction of sovereignty. In his radical portrayal of salvation, the highest good is maintenance of physical existence free of physical harm. Communion with God is denied, on the basis of fellowship between God and humankind purportedly being inimical to divine sovereignty. Hobbes effectively reduces the affective experience of God to fear and the desire for self-preservation. This article contends that the political significance of Hobbes’s eschatological innovations is not only a matter of devaluing salvation so as to lessen its political threat. It is also a matter of locating the experience of earthly sovereignty, constituted by remoteness and power, in the eschaton as well as in this world. This transformation of the affectivity of eschatological hope, I argue, can be seen to shore up earthly sovereignty. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-1719 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Political theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2022.2078547 |