Political theology as translation

Political theology is the grounding of politics in theology. It is further the unidirectional translation of the latter into the former. Carl Schmitt claim that the fundamental concepts of Western politics were essentially secularized theological terms. This idea is not alien to Marx and Weber. They both saw the links between theology and the social order, both in the political and the economic order. But there remains a central ambiguity in all three thinkers: what is the operation involved in the transit from theology to politics. For Marx capitalism is the last attempt of theology to order society. Politics is the space of real praxis, where all theology is negated. But theology is negated because it is actualized, realized, verwrklicht. For Weber religion shapes capitalism, but at the cost of its own decay. There is a spiritual dimension of capitalism, a “subjectivity” behind its entrepreneurial thrive. But religion immolates in this transit for the new society will live in a disenchanted world. Schmitt recognizes the Marxist promise and Weber’s warning on the twilight of religion. But he knows that politics can never constitute a fully autonomous domain. Secularization was completely misunderstood. Schmitt’s lesson is that secularization was not an event, but a constant process of translation. Theology is the source; politics is the realm of actualization. This is why a “critique of religion” cannot suffice. It is not about showing that in reality all politics is religion in disguise. Political theology is quite different from direct domination of religious ideas, or domination in the name of religion. It requires a precise translation. First, a selection from the religious corpus, the source. Then, a selection of the political domain, the target. Finally, the proper translation. This last step is the most important; it must retain the power of religion, but the common language of politics; it must retain the glory of the former and execute the power proper of the latter.