Political theology and the state of exception

pp. 79-100

in: Petra BROWN, Bonhoeffer, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Abstract

This chapter builds a foundation to critically analyse the ethical and political implications of Bonhoeffer's concept of the "extraordinary situation". It does so through an investigation of a key concept, introduced by the most prominent theorist of the "exception" in the twentieth century, Carl Schmitt. In Political Theology (1933), Schmitt introduces the 'state of exception" in connection with strong sovereignty and the event of war. This chapter considers the political and social implications of Schmitt's account of exception, in particular the danger of dictatorship, the loss of a democratic and shared world and the introduction of a force or violence without boundaries.