Event overview
GLITS Seminar with Federico Filauri, PhD student at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, presents Ernst Bloch’s Messianic Theocracy: an interpretation
GLITS Seminar
RHB 255, 5pm
Federico Filauri presents his paper entitled 'Ernst Bloch’s Messianic Theocracy: an interpretation'. Benjamin once stated that “to have repudiated with utmost vehemence the political significance of theocracy is the cardinal merit of Ernst Bloch’s Spirit of Utopia.” Moving counterintuitively against this appraisal, this paper will advance the hypothesis that it is possible to locate Bloch’s messianism within the frame of a peculiar kind of theocracy.
To do so, the paper will move from Schmitt’s well-known definition of political theology, Taubes’ overturning of his position, Assmann’s elaboration of the concept of theocracy and Georgi’s idea of a “theocracy from the bottom”. This latter entails a direct sovereignty of God on earth whereby no human mediation is possible (no representative account of politics is allowed) so that every terrestrial institution (political and social) gets divested from its power.
Against this background, Bloch’s messianism can find its collocation as a form of gnostical theocracy from the bottom, namely: a revolutionary political theology whose realization relies on man and man only. The paper will finally discuss Bloch’s three-fold move: 1. He brings Christianity within the frame of Jewish Messianism, identifying God and the Messiah. 2. With a materialistic move, he stresses the title “Son of man” and thus brings it back to the terrestrial this-worldly realm. 3. He amalgamates his theocratic messianism and the self-sufficiency of man by gleaning some theological conceptions from gnostic doctrines.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Feb 2020 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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