Erik Peterson’s Political Theology of the Modern Nation-State

Abstract

ABSTRACT Erik Peterson is primarily known for his 1935 rebuttal to Schmitt’s Political Theology. Readers like Agamben have raised the need to investigate whether Peterson himself tried to extend or substantiate his critique. Albeit in scattered reflections, Peterson developed a genealogy of the nation-state through the ambiguity of the angelic and its relation to empire. This article presents these reflections according to the systematic connections Peterson discerns across three categories: the denial of God, the claim of human rights, and linguistic unity. Throughout, attention is paid to how Peterson’s ideas resemble those in Schmitt’s works, though he often adds his own accents through the concepts of Trinitarian and eschatological thought. The result is a nuanced conception of Peterson’s appreciation of Schmitt’s genealogical methodology. It clarifies how Peterson’s envisaged the Trinity as a political-theological paradigm becomes more intelligible. His insistence on openness to the transcendent can be linked to negative political theology.