Polytheism as Political Form: Schmitt, Cassirer, Blumenberg

Abstract

This article revisits the intersection of myth and political theology through readings of relevant texts by Carl Schmitt, Ernst Cassirer, and Hans Blumenberg. At stake is the question of whether myth can inform a concept of political polytheism that avoids the absolutist threat to democracy of Schmitt’s monotheistic brand of political theology. To answer this question, the present essay proceeds in three steps. It reconstructs the Schmittian model in contrast to polytheistic concepts of the political, then traces the notion of the myth of the state in Cassirer’s and Blumenberg’s work. Finally, it shows how Blumenberg arrives at a preliminary yet operative model of political polytheism that goes beyond conceptions of the liberal democratic consensus and reveals a political form of resistance to power.