Langford, Peter and Newman, Saul. 2023. Order, Crisis and Redemption: Political Theology after Schmitt. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 9781438493442 [Book]

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Abstract or Description

A critical reflection on the limitations of Carl Schmitt's political theology, reconsidered in light of the current crisis of the liberal democratic order.

Recent events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine, the rise of right-wing populism, the growing economic inequality and political instability, and the climate emergency, are indicative of the decomposition of the global liberal democratic order. Order, Crisis, and Redemption is a critical reflection on the limitations of Carl Schmitt's political theology, an attempt to think, with and beyond Schmitt, about the parameters of this crisis. Through a sustained critical engagement, ranging over Schmittian texts, including the lesser known, from the 1920s to the 1970s, the book elaborates three main themes that preoccupied Schmitt: order, crisis, and redemption. In times of crisis, as with the one we are currently experiencing, we are faced with the dilemma of either shoring up the current political and legal order-through ever more authoritarian measures-or radically transforming it. Redemption, in the full theological sense of the word, thus implies the possibility of a new understanding of ethics and politics, aimed at creating a more just world.

Item Type:	Book
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Politics
Date:	July 2023
Item ID:	38828
Date Deposited:	16 May 2025 08:39
Last Modified:	16 May 2025 14:05
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/38828

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