On political theology: A controversy between Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt

This article pays special attention to the large number of references to political theology by Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt, particularly in the interwar period, and seeks to interpret these references in a new way. While Schmitt's analogies between God and state are to be expected considering his strong Catholic roots, such comparisons are much more surprising for a positivist like Hans Kelsen, who always tried to relieve state and law from transcendental elements. The article concludes that, far from being marginal in the doctrinal dispute between Schmitt and Kelsen, references to political theology express and summarize their major controversy about the relation between state and law, as well as about the sources of the state's unity. The heart of the disputatio between the two jurists concerned the ability of the political power to emancipate itself from the juridical order. The ‘legal miracle’—in this context meaning the occasional autonomization of the state from law—was for Schmitt the manifestation of sovereign power. However, for Kelsen it represented the negation of the state's essence, whose actions must be determined only by the legal order.     

On Political Theology: The Hidden Dialogue between C. Schmitt and Ernst H. Kantorowicz in The King's Two Bodies

In recent years, Ernst H. Kantorowicz's work The King's Two Bodies (1957) has been the object of both historical and philosophical research. Kantorowicz decided to subtitle his book ‘A Study in Medieval Political Theology’, but few scholars have actually recognised his work as research in ‘political theology’. The aim of this article, then, is to uncover the sense(s) in which his book might be considered a work of ‘political theology’, especially in the sense coined by Carl Schmitt in 1922. Such a discussion ultimately aims to contribute to the foundation of political-theology research, a subject that has been widespread among European intellectuals in the twentieth century and which continues to be a focus of interest. This article argues that Kantorowicz's book can be interpreted as a practice of—and also an enriching addition to—Schmitt's thesis on political theology, even if it does not mention Schmitt's name. Such a conclusion is only possible by accepting that there was a heated dialogue between Kantorowicz and Schmitt through Erik Peterson's work. The article further discusses its approach with other scholars that, even though they are based on similar hypotheses, make different conclusions.     

The Unevenness of Political Theology

ABSTRACT

Those who agree that Carl Schmitt was correct to prefer to political theology to liberalism nonetheless need to develop an account of how an authority structure can sustain itself without imposing an ideology on those over whom it rules. This article suggests that one possibility forward is found in the mystical political theology of Jacob Taubes's 1955 essay “On The Symbolic Order of Modern Democracy,” since that essay posits a political body in which sovereignty is distributed, without forcing that distribution in an arbitrary manner.     

Orthodox violence: “Critique of Violence” and Walter Benjamin's Jewish political theology

This paper deals with the role of Judaism in Walter Benjamin's famous 1921 essay on violence and law, Zur Kritik der Gewalt. Despite the intense attention devoted to this essay, the role of Jewish myth in it has not yet been thoroughly explained. This study contends that the association between what Benjamin termed revolutionary violence and the Jewish messianic tradition, which plays a central role in the evaluation of Benjamin's text, is far more problematic than has hitherto been assumed, and poses a serious challenge, which has not been fully examined in its historical context. Second, this essay claims that the subversive elements that many have supposedly found in Benjamin's text and the attempts to link these elements to messianic traditions are also unconvincing. Third, the paper contextualizes Benjamin's thought within the framework of the Jewish political–theological debate of the period. It contends that Benjamin's theory of law and justice should be understood not as a revolutionary, anti-republican text, as has been generally accepted, but as a secularized conservative orthodox one. In doing so, it seeks to shed light not only on Benjamin's early thinking and its influences, but also on the neglected element of Jewish orthodoxy within the broader topic of political theology.     

The Language of Postwar Intellectual Schmittianism

The article analyzes the work of Hanno Kesting, Reinhart Koselleck, Roman Schnur, and Nicolaus Sombart—four young followers of Carl Schmitt in postwar Germany. Their “intellectual Schmittianism” was less than a full commitment to Schmitt’s political positions, yet had more than an arbitrary similarity with them: it pertained to assumptions, categories, and modes of thought. Drawing on Pocock’s terminology, I identify a particular “language” of intellectual Schmittianism, introduce its key components, and analyze their interaction. I focus on six categories derived from Schmitt’s narrative of European political modernity: discrimination, historical parallels, secularization, global civil war, open/latent civil war, and category blurs. The analysis shows that these categories were interlinked argumentative devices rather than mere rhetoric and that they systematically upheld the postwar scholars’ arguments. While the Schmittian language enabled the young scholars to express their political skepticism without necessarily rejecting the newly adopted institutional forms, it also constrained their choices. Linguistic resources can always be used for novel purposes, yet the dense internal structure of the language of postwar intellectual Schmittianism hindered revaluation and selective utilization. Kesting excluded, the young scholars gradually grew critical of Schmitt to varying degrees, but they never directly confronted his problematic language.     

The historical geography of 1 Kings 9:11–14

ABSTRACT

1 Kings 9:11–14 relates Solomon’s sale of the land of Cabul to Hiram, king of Tyre. Commentaries and studies on this pericope have dealt with its linguistic and historical aspects without reaching consensus on where this land was, what the term ‘Cabul’ actually means, or even whether these verses preserve an actual historic event from the 10th century BCE. This article addresses these issues through a more systematic presentation of the archaeological remains and geographic realities in the Galilee, and in so doing, offers a more contextually derived understanding of the events recorded in 1 Kgs 9:11–14 than has heretofore been offered.     

明中叶以来史学考据的兴起及其成就与缺失

由于明朝官方所修国史失实,私家修史存在比较严重的曲笔、讳饰等现象,因此明中叶以来史学考据应运而生。首开史学考信风气之先的是王世贞,其代表作《史乘考误》是明代首部对当代史史料进行考证的著作。其后焦竑、朱国桢、张燧、朱明镐、谈迁、钱谦益等人在考史方面都取得了不小的成绩,同时也存在着一定的缺失。     

Ethics of heritage: locating the punitive state in the historical penal landscape of Taipei

Research into prison tourism and prison heritage has not taken enough time to understand how historical change has left impacts in urban contexts, which sometimes continues even after the prisons are decommissioned. This paper discusses the punitive state in the context of the historical penal landscape of Taipei through an exploration of how an historical prison was designed, built, partially demolished, preserved and redeveloped under three political regimes. It draws attention to the neglected relationships between punishment, colonial modernity and heritage. Drawing on the literature of dissonant heritage and dark tourism it argues that the way in which the government erased the heritage and evicted squatters without regard for colonial histories and large-scale, post-war migration is yet another way of writing imprisonment into the landscape and ‘othering’ the punished. Furthermore, in tracing the place memories, both within and outside of the high prison walls, it demonstrates the possibilities offered by ethics of heritage, with which we may counter the culture of punishment in the remaking of cities.     

裴子野《宋略》史论的价值

裴子野是南朝萧梁时的史学家,所著《宋略》为世人所重,惜其久已散佚.本文在前人研究的基础上,多方勾稽,搜集《宋略》史论佚文28首,并对其作了分类研究,揭示其价值所在.《宋略》史论佚文对全面认识南朝史学的发展,尤其是历史思想的发展,具有重要的参考价值.     

墨西哥人移民美国的历程

墨西哥移民在美国移民史上占有重要的地位,是当今美国最大的移民群体。作为一种历史现象,墨西哥人向美国较大规模的移民开始于20世纪初前后,概而观之,除20世纪30年代因大萧条而短暂中断外,墨西哥移民一直呈现出持续的高水平特征。墨西哥人移民美国的历程大致可以划分为四个阶段,与之对应的是四次移民浪潮：第一次浪潮从19世纪末20世纪初到1929年美国经济大萧条;第二次移民浪潮从1942年美墨双方签署《布拉塞洛计划55301964年该计划终结;第三次浪潮从1965年移民法颁布到20世纪80年代中期,此间大量墨西哥无证件移民流入美国;第四次浪潮从《1986年移民改革与控制法》颁布至今。墨西哥人移民美国源于一系列历史、地理、经济和社会因素,根植于美墨两国总体社会经济背景之下。     

曾国藩政治思想的文化特性

作为近代湖湘士人的代表人物,曾国藩的显赫事功与特定的时代背景有着密不可分的联系,同时他的政治思想又集中体现了诸多鲜明的文化特性,既充满着”恢复民族固有美德”的守成性,又蕴涵了“倡导社会自强新政”的维新性,还很大程度上折射出”执两用中、刚柔互用”的中庸性。     

改革开放以来的明史研究

改革开放以来,明史研究出现了前所未有的大发展大繁荣局面。这首先表现为研究队伍日益扩大,论著数量空前增加。其次是思想解放不断深化、认识水平不断提高,对皇权政治、农民战争等一系列历史问题的评价变得越来越理性和客观。再次是研究方法日益多样,研究领域日益拓展,史学观念、问题意识和研究取向发生了深刻变化。其中社会史的兴起尤其值得关注,不仅开辟了新的研究领域,对传统的政治史、经济史、思想文化研究也产生了深刻的渗透和影响。尽管明史研究形势喜人,成就巨大,但也存在一些不足和缺陷,如选题重复、内容肤浅、对国内外研究状况不够了解等。     

The Spaces of Capital: The Political Form of Capitalism and the Internationalization of the State1

Abstract: In the course of the neoliberal globalization offensive capital has become more international. This development has placed the question of the state on the agenda once again. The central issue here is the extent to which the existing plurality of states should be seen as a historically contingent state of affairs which might not in principle last indefinitely, or as a structural component of the capitalist mode of production. One important aspect of this issue is the question of how the relationship between the “political form” of capitalism and “institutions” is understood. More often than not, even approaches that use Marxist theory have tended to address this question in an unsatisfactory manner.     

清代贵州锦屏林木交易习惯的法律经济学分析

清代锦屏林木交易习惯,以契约、碑文等为主要载体,在南方山地少数民族习惯法中属于初阶成文[1]形式的习惯法。它们不仅反映了当地历史上民族经济发展的客观情况,而且也是老百姓自觉地创造民间法和政府正确运用法律和经济手段治理边疆的真实写照。本文兼采描述与分析相结合的方法,对田野调查的情况作一定层面的小结。     

淮上文献述论

淮安,古称淮阴,历史上的版图占据今天苏北的大部.大约在夏王朝的初期,淮夷在淮河流域建立了徐国.秦统一六国后,揭开了在淮安设县的序幕.特殊的地理位置使淮安成为人文之邦.淮安地处京杭大运河中段,承担着转运漕粮的重任,这一独特的交通优势使淮安成为重要的商品集散地.历史在铸造淮安人威武不能屈的灵魂时,还给这片热土留下了丰富的文学作品.     

改革开放以来抗日战争胜利纪念活动述论

新中国成立后,政务院即确定每年的9月3日为抗日战争胜利纪念日。改革开放后,每当抗战胜利纪念日,尤其"逢十"纪念之期,国家和社会均会举行各式各样的纪念活动。这些活动主要有召开纪念大会或座谈会,发表社论或纪念文章,开展文化艺术活动等。抗战胜利纪念的社会功能包括:第一,铭记历史事实,宣传国耻记忆、抗争历史、和平经验;第二,进行政治动员,动员全国人民参与社会主义建设、投身改革开放事业、献力中华民族伟大复兴梦想;第三,塑造国家形象,中国对世界反法西斯战争的贡献、中国共产党是抗日战争的中流砥柱、抗日战争形成的伟大精神财富;第四,协调各方关系,中国与世界、大陆与港澳台、共产党与国民党的关系。     

唐代人物画理论中的历史意识

唐代人物画理论中有一个重要的思想倾向,这就是贯穿于其中的强烈的历史意识。这种历史意识主要是通过对绘画起源的考察,从而将绘画发展视为一个连续而完整的过程。