The Withholding Power: An Essay on Political Theology
Ebook
The first English translation of his work, The Withholding Power, offers a fascinating introduction to the thought of Italian philosopher Massimo Cacciari. Cacciari is a notoriously complex thinker but this title offers a starting point for entering into the very heart of his thinking. The Witholding Power provides a comprehensive and synthetic insight into his interpretation of Christian political theology and leftist Italian political theory more generally.
The theme of katechon - originally a biblical concept which has been developed into a political concept - has been absolutely central to the work of Italian philosophers such as Agamben and Eposito for nearly twenty years. In The Withholding Power, Cacciari sets forth his startlingly original perspective on the influence the theological-political questions have traditionally exerted upon ideas of power, sovereignty and the relationship between political and religious authority.
With an introduction by Howard Caygill contextualizing the work within the history of Italian thought, this title will offer those coming to Cacciari for the first time a searing insight into his political, theological and philosophical milieu.
The first English translation of the political philosophical work of prominent Italian philosopher Massimo Cacciarri with an lengthy introduction by Howard Caygill. The Withholding Power is a provocative interpretation of political theology and Italian leftist thought.
The first english translation of a key work by prominent Italian philosopher Massimo Cacciari
A timely consideration of one of the central preoccupations in Italian political philosophy: the relationship between theology and politics
A lengthy introduction from Howard Caygill contextualises the book within the traditions of Italian philosophy and makes a case for the importance of Cacciari's work
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Howard Caygill
1.The Problem of Political Theology
2. Empire and the Katechon
3. Epoch and The Eternal
4. Quis est Katechon?
5. Excursus: 'Render unto Caesar…'
6. The Church and the Katechon
7. The Nomos of Satan
8. The Two Cities
9. The Grand Inquisitor
10. The Age of Epimetheus
Notes
Appendix:The Katechon Archive
Bibliography
Index
Bridging the span between spiritual ontology and the cogs of material politics-two inseparable but warring brothers-across great conceptual distance, Cacciari is a dominant voice in continental philosophy today, a critical link in our understanding of German and Franco-Italian thinking. Extending meditations on Europe to quandaries unsettling the very foundations of contemporary world order, The Withholding Power brings Cacciari's latest reflections across the oceans in compellingly resonant form.
Massimo Cacciari's The Withholding power is an essential reading to understand the question of political theology, to move beyond the misleading category of secularization and realize that the apocalyptic-eschatological ideas were intrinsically political since their origin.
In his discourse on notions of political theology, Massimo Cacciari offers new insights, both on subsequent thinkers on the subject and the tempestuous political and religious phenomena that have occurred since the 1990s. One of the most profound minds of this period, Cacciari re-examines the ineradicable relationship between politics and theology. The Withholding Power offers its readers an acute blueprint of how we might re-consider this last quarter century.
In his admirable study on withholding power, on power that prevents the worst from happening here and now, Italian philosopher Massimo Cacciari alerts us to a number of difficulties that we face when trying to activate such power in our times.
- Title: The Withholding Power: An Essay on Political Theology
- Authors: Howard Caygill, Massimo Cacciari, Edi Pucci
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2018
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781472580504, 9781350046443, 1350046442, 1472580508
- Resource ID: LLS:9781472580504
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-08T23:42:43Z
Massimo Cacciari is a Italian politician and one of the most influential social philosophers in Italy. He has been Dean of Philosophy at the Universit San Raffaele in Milan and is a former Mayor of Venice.
Howard Caygill is Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, UK. He is author of the best-selling title On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance.
Edi Pucci is a journalist and translator based in Italy.