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Religions
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Divine and Secular Sovereignty: Interpretations
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Divine and Secular Sovereignty: Interpretations

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 1194

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Zoltán Balázs

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Political Science, Institute of Social and Political Science, Corvinus University, Fővám tér 8, 1093 Budapest, Hungary
Interests: analytic political theory; value theory; power; literature and politics
Dr. György Laszlo Geréby

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, 1051 Budapest, Hungary
Interests: arts and culture; history and medieval studies; nationalism and religious studies; philosophy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Interest in political theology has been on the rise in recent years. Scholars have devoted considerable attention to the analogy between divine and secular sovereignty, from the possible uses of political eschatology, the influence of apocalyptic thinking over politics and political thinking, the connections between liturgy and political thinking,the very idea of the sacred as it appears in the tradition of politics, and the modern secularization of the term and the possible applications of negative theology to politics, to name but a few examples.

The target area and concept of this Special Issue is the interface of divine and secular sovereignty. Carl Schmitt’s famous proposition is that modern political concepts are secularized theological ones. Consequently, secular sovereignty is a secular version of divine sovereignty. The thesis met immediate rejection: E. Peterson argued that Christian trinitarian doctrine (with the triune divine essence) cannot have a secular analogy. G. Agamben, however, advances a view that trinitarian thinking is compatible with a special understanding of governing (both classical and modern). These controversies are interesting, and given the vast theological tradition of trinitarian thinking, so much seems to be unearthed here for political theology. There are other similarly essential issues and questions concerning the putative analogy between secular and divine sovereignty, subject to historical, genealogical, analytical, and phenomenological study, extending not only to Christian but also Jewish and Islamic theologies. These include, among many others, the following:

  • Reason and will in divine nature being applied to political theory.
  • The relevance of love and sharing as essential to God’s nature—is there any political analogy to this? Is divine sovereignty monarchical or republican?
  • Sovereignty as kenosis (full self-emptying) and obedience—is this possible in politics, or is this essentially antipolitical?
  • Can God suffer? How are divine and secular sovereignty related to existence, suffering, and death?
  • God and creation: Is there something like political creation, out of nothing perhaps?
  • God and providence: Is divine sovereignty essentially sabbatical or active? Is political sovereignty best conceived as having an active (governing) and passive (ruling) aspect?
  • Schmitt (and earlier, Thomas Hobbes) attributed great significance to divine miracles having a strong connection to political decisions—how do political miracles work, if at all?
  • How does the theology of divine properties (omniscience, omnipotence, eternity, happiness, perfection) influence political thinking?
  • Is there such as thing as political mysticism, an attitude of contemplation of divine perfection and being?
  • How is sovereignty related to time? Does it entail eternity and/or immortality? Is it possible to find political theoretical analogies here?

We welcome proposals related to these and similar areas and topics, to be discussed through the methods listed above, using primary and secondary sources, including literary texts. Discussions of classic authors’ views will also be considered.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send these to the Guest Editors, Prof. Dr. Zoltán Balázs (zoltan.balazs@uni-corvinus.hu), Dr. Gyorgy Laszlo Gereby (gerebygy@ceu.edu) and cc the Assistant Editor of Religions, Margaret Liu (margaret.liu@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring that contributions align with the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Zoltán Balázs
Dr. György Laszlo Geréby
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • divine sovereignty
  • secular sovereignty
  • political theology
  • Carl Schmitt
  • Erik Peterson
  • Giorgio Agamben

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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15 pages, 256 KiB  
Article
Political Theology After the End of Metaphysics: A Revision via Jean-Luc Marion’s Critique of Onto-Theology
by Almudena Molina
Religions 2025, 16(6), 707; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060707 - 30 May 2025
Viewed by 333
Abstract
This article explores the possibility of conceiving political theology beyond its traditional metaphysical foundations. Starting from Carl Schmitt’s formulation of political theology as a domain rooted in analogical and representational transfers between the theological and the political, and drawing on Jean-Luc Marion’s critique [...] Read more.
This article explores the possibility of conceiving political theology beyond its traditional metaphysical foundations. Starting from Carl Schmitt’s formulation of political theology as a domain rooted in analogical and representational transfers between the theological and the political, and drawing on Jean-Luc Marion’s critique of metaphysical theology, or onto-theology, this paper interrogates the foundational assumptions of Schmitt’s political theology and assesses the viability of a non-metaphysical theo-political discourse. The article has three main aims: to elucidate the representational logic at the core of Schmitt’s political theology; to examine postmetaphysical theo-political discourses in light of Marion’s deconstruction of onto-theology; and to vindicate the legitimacy and coherence of postmodern theological-political approaches. Taking inspiration from Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite’s threefold theological method—affirmation, negation, and eminence—the article argues that contemporary political theology can be reframed accordingly: (1) the path of affirmation aligns with Vatter’s reading of Schmitt; (2) the path of negation resonates with Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive strategy; and (3) the path of eminence finds its expression in Marion’s phenomenology of givenness. Ultimately, this paper contends that Marion’s phenomenological approach opens a productive avenue for reconceiving theo-political discourse; it is argued that the phenomenology of givenness proposed by Marion to surpass the conceptual idols of metaphysics has significant implications for the theo-political field that remain unexplored. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Divine and Secular Sovereignty: Interpretations)
14 pages, 245 KiB  
Article
From Divine to Popular Sovereignty: The Civil Shift in Contemporary Islamic Political Thought
by Abdessamad Belhaj
Religions 2025, 16(5), 622; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050622 - 15 May 2025
Viewed by 422
Abstract
For various religious and political reasons, the idea of divine sovereignty (ḥākimiyya) has found support in many Islamic movements and discourses between the 1940s and the 1980s throughout the Muslim world. Nonetheless, in the 1990s, the consolidation of contemporary nation-states, the [...] Read more.
For various religious and political reasons, the idea of divine sovereignty (ḥākimiyya) has found support in many Islamic movements and discourses between the 1940s and the 1980s throughout the Muslim world. Nonetheless, in the 1990s, the consolidation of contemporary nation-states, the appeal of liberal democracy, and human rights in the Muslim world, along with the failure of Islamism, paved the way for a turn towards popular sovereignty in Islamic political thought. The emergence of a post-Islamist age in the Arab world and Iran, especially in the aftermath of the Arab Spring (2011), has changed the perspectives of many Islamic intellectuals and jurists, who now place a higher emphasis on popular sovereignty, depoliticizing divine sovereignty. This article offers an intellectual history of the shift from divine to popular sovereignty in modern Islamic political ethics, as well as a discussion of the factors that led to this change. Few critical voices on sovereignty highlight the ethical aspects of sharia’s governance and challenge the popular sovereignty narrative as authoritarian. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Divine and Secular Sovereignty: Interpretations)
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