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"It is somewhat ironic that this book comes out in the centenary of Political Theology, first published in 1922. In the end, one of the main claims we shall make here is that Carl Schmitt's celebrated essay has been unduly overemphasised and that it formulated a theory of law and a conception of normality that he himself dismantled a few years after its publication. A related claim will be that interpretations that identify a connection between Political Theology and successive works such as The Concept of the Political (1928) and Constitutional Theory (1928) are wrong in at least one important respect: through those works, Schmitt tried to pull himself out of the quagmire in which he was bogged down in 1922, viz., the problematic conception that we shall dub "exceptionalist decisionism." But we shall have to go further. Works that are coeval with Political Theology, such as Dictatorship (1921) and Roman Catholicism and Political Form (1923), offer much leeway for criticising exceptionalist decisionism, either because the notions of exception and decision are thinner and more tenable (as is the case with Dictatorship), or because there is no room at all for any of them (as is the case with Roman Catholicism and Political Form). In sum, as a celebration of Political Theology, this book cuts a poor figure"--
About the author
Mariano Croce is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome. He held the post of Marie Curie Fellow at the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp, where is co-leader of the research line in kinship studies. His books include The Legal Theory of Carl Schmitt (2013, with Andrea Salvatore), The Politics of Juridification (2018), and The Legacy of Pluralism: The Continental Jurisprudence of Santi Romano, Carl Schmitt, and Costantino Mortati (2020, with Marco Goldoni).Andrea Salvatore is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome. His books include The Legal Theory of Carl Schmitt (2013, with Mariano Croce) and Undoing Ties: Political Philosophy at the Waning of the State (2015, with Mariano Croce).
Summary
Dethroning the false centrality of certain key texts, this book offers an ambitious, novel perspective on Carl Schmitt and his legal and political thinking by analysing his writings from across his decades-long career. It explores Schmitt's varied and developing thoughts on exceptionalism and societal pluralism.
