Brendan Moran is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary, Canada.Paula Schwebel is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.

• AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction, Brendan Moran (University of Calgary, Canada) and Paula Schwebel (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada)Part I: Contra Schmitt: On Sovereignty and Political Theology1. Melancholy Sovereignty and the Politics of Sin, Paula Schwebel (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada)2. Sovereignty and Revolutionary Astropolitics: Benjamin, Baroque Trauerspiel, and Calderón’s Life Is a Dream, Miguel Vatter (Flinders University, Australia)3. Contra Schmitt: Leo Strauss, Walter Benjamin, and Jewish Political Theology, Leora Batnitzky (Princeteon University, USA) and Vivian Liska (University of Antwerp, Belgium)Part II: Critique of Law and Theocracy: Nihilism, Anarchism, and the Justice of Study 4. Nihilism as World Politics: Benjamin’s Theology of Entropy, Agata Bielik-Robson (Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland)5. My Kingdom for a Shirt: Untrammeled Atheism and Anarchism in Benjamin and Kafka, James Martel (San Francisco State University, USA)6. Study, Sovereignty, and Justice: Benjamin, Scholem, and Agamben, Brendan Moran (University of Calgary, Canada)Part III: Fate, Messianic Time, and Messianic Adjustment7. Benjamin’s Concept of Fate, Howard Eiland (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)8. Fulfilled Time: Benjamin’s Reception of Hermann Cohen’s Idea of Messianism, Tamara Tagliacozzo (Università di Roma Tre, Italy)9. Beyond Mysticism and the Apocalypse: Benjamin’s Dislocation of the Messianic, Sami Khatib (Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany)10. A Hunchbacked Political Theology: Creaturely Biopolitics as the Self-Sublation of Distorted Life, Carlo Salzani (Innsbruck University, Austria)List of Contributors Index

This volume persuasively shows us that political theology does not belong exclusively to authoritarian thinking, but also to its opposite. Those writings in which Benjamin departed from the authoritarian thinking of Schmitt have exercised a deep influence on contemporary political thought, and given the considerable challenges in accessing these texts, the work of these scholars helps to unearth a crucial vocabulary for the critique of authoritarianism in all its forms.

Brendan Moran is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary, Canada.Paula Schwebel is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.

• AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction, Brendan Moran (University of Calgary, Canada) and Paula Schwebel (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada)Part I: Contra Schmitt: On Sovereignty and Political Theology1. Melancholy Sovereignty and the Politics of Sin, Paula Schwebel (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada)2. Sovereignty and Revolutionary Astropolitics: Benjamin, Baroque Trauerspiel, and Calderón’s Life Is a Dream, Miguel Vatter (Flinders University, Australia)3. Contra Schmitt: Leo Strauss, Walter Benjamin, and Jewish Political Theology, Leora Batnitzky (Princeteon University, USA) and Vivian Liska (University of Antwerp, Belgium)Part II: Critique of Law and Theocracy: Nihilism, Anarchism, and the Justice of Study 4. Nihilism as World Politics: Benjamin’s Theology of Entropy, Agata Bielik-Robson (Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland)5. My Kingdom for a Shirt: Untrammeled Atheism and Anarchism in Benjamin and Kafka, James Martel (San Francisco State University, USA)6. Study, Sovereignty, and Justice: Benjamin, Scholem, and Agamben, Brendan Moran (University of Calgary, Canada)Part III: Fate, Messianic Time, and Messianic Adjustment7. Benjamin’s Concept of Fate, Howard Eiland (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)8. Fulfilled Time: Benjamin’s Reception of Hermann Cohen’s Idea of Messianism, Tamara Tagliacozzo (Università di Roma Tre, Italy)9. Beyond Mysticism and the Apocalypse: Benjamin’s Dislocation of the Messianic, Sami Khatib (Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany)10. A Hunchbacked Political Theology: Creaturely Biopolitics as the Self-Sublation of Distorted Life, Carlo Salzani (Innsbruck University, Austria)List of Contributors Index

This volume persuasively shows us that political theology does not belong exclusively to authoritarian thinking, but also to its opposite. Those writings in which Benjamin departed from the authoritarian thinking of Schmitt have exercised a deep influence on contemporary political thought, and given the considerable challenges in accessing these texts, the work of these scholars helps to unearth a crucial vocabulary for the critique of authoritarianism in all its forms.

Brendan Moran is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calgary, Canada.Paula Schwebel is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.

• AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction, Brendan Moran (University of Calgary, Canada) and Paula Schwebel (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada)Part I: Contra Schmitt: On Sovereignty and Political Theology1. Melancholy Sovereignty and the Politics of Sin, Paula Schwebel (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada)2. Sovereignty and Revolutionary Astropolitics: Benjamin, Baroque Trauerspiel, and Calderón’s Life Is a Dream, Miguel Vatter (Flinders University, Australia)3. Contra Schmitt: Leo Strauss, Walter Benjamin, and Jewish Political Theology, Leora Batnitzky (Princeteon University, USA) and Vivian Liska (University of Antwerp, Belgium)Part II: Critique of Law and Theocracy: Nihilism, Anarchism, and the Justice of Study 4. Nihilism as World Politics: Benjamin’s Theology of Entropy, Agata Bielik-Robson (Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland)5. My Kingdom for a Shirt: Untrammeled Atheism and Anarchism in Benjamin and Kafka, James Martel (San Francisco State University, USA)6. Study, Sovereignty, and Justice: Benjamin, Scholem, and Agamben, Brendan Moran (University of Calgary, Canada)Part III: Fate, Messianic Time, and Messianic Adjustment7. Benjamin’s Concept of Fate, Howard Eiland (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)8. Fulfilled Time: Benjamin’s Reception of Hermann Cohen’s Idea of Messianism, Tamara Tagliacozzo (Università di Roma Tre, Italy)9. Beyond Mysticism and the Apocalypse: Benjamin’s Dislocation of the Messianic, Sami Khatib (Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany)10. A Hunchbacked Political Theology: Creaturely Biopolitics as the Self-Sublation of Distorted Life, Carlo Salzani (Innsbruck University, Austria)List of Contributors Index

This volume persuasively shows us that political theology does not belong exclusively to authoritarian thinking, but also to its opposite. Those writings in which Benjamin departed from the authoritarian thinking of Schmitt have exercised a deep influence on contemporary political thought, and given the considerable challenges in accessing these texts, the work of these scholars helps to unearth a crucial vocabulary for the critique of authoritarianism in all its forms.