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Why has power in the West assumed the form of an "economy," that is, of a government of men and things? If power is essentially government, why does it need glory, that is, the ceremonial and liturgical apparatus that has always accompanied it?In the early centuries of the Church, in order to reconcile monotheism with God's threefold nature, the doctrine of Trinity was introduced in the guise of an economy of divine life. It was as if the Trinity amounted to nothing more than a problem of managing and governing the heavenly house and the world. Agamben shows that, when combined with the idea of providence, this theological-economic paradigm unexpectedly lies at the origin of many of the most important categories of modern politics, from the democratic theory of the division of powers to the strategic doctrine of collateral damage, from the invisible hand of Smith's liberalism to ideas of order and security.But the greatest novelty to emerge from The Kingdom and the Glory is that modern power is not only government but also glory, and that the ceremonial, liturgical, and acclamatory aspects that we have regarded as vestiges of the past actually constitute the basis of Western power. Through a fascinating analysis of liturgical acclamations and ceremonial symbols of power—the throne, the crown, purple cloth, the Fasces, and more—Agamben develops an original genealogy that illuminates the startling function of consent and of the media in modern democracies. With this book, the work begun with Homo Sacer reaches a decisive point, profoundly challenging and renewing our vision of politics.
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THE KINGDOM AND THE GLORY
Detail of apse mosaic, Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuo ri le Mura, Rome. Photo graph by Luca Marchi.
MERIDIAN
Crossing Aesthetics
Werner Hamacher
Editor
Translated by Lorenzo Chiesa (with Matteo Mandarini)
Stanford University Press
Stanford California 2011
THE I p. 29). But it is once again the poets who bestow glory. Both the Phaecian singer in the Odyssey (8, 72-82) and the poet ofthe Theogony present themselves as masters ofglory, who look as much to the past as to the future ('that I might spread the fame /ldeioimi} ofpast andfuture ':· Hesiod, Theogony, p. I2). The H01neric world has therefore a .figure ofglory that is entirely the work of m.an, mere glorification. For this reason, man)' centuries later, a Roman poet was able to push this "glorifYing" strain ofpoetry to the limit, writing that not just heroes, but ''the gods too (ifI may be allowed to say so) exist through poetr)'; even the majesty ofone so great has need ofthe voice o_fsome one to celebrate it" ("Di quoque carminibus, si_fas est dicere, jiunt I tantaque maiestas ore canentis eget':· Ovid, The Pon tic Epistles, Book IV, 8, 55-56, p. 455).
8.4- In the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul takes up again the kabhod of Exodus 29f£ , in order to found, by meticulously building up a series of optical images, his theory of glory. The-provisional-glory that illuminates Moses' face after he received the tablets of the law from God (which were defined, following Paul's implacable critique of the law, as a "ministration of death, " diakonia tou thanatou: 2 Corinthians 3 : 7) is incomparably less than that which results from the "ministration of redemption" that the Messiah brought to mankind. Nevertheless the members of the messianic community (the term "Christian" is unknown to Paul) have no need to place a veil ( kalymma) over their faces, as Moses does--a veil that "even unto this day, when Moses is read [ . ] is upon their heart" (2 Corinthians 3 : 1 5) . I n fact, the Messiah involves the deacti vation of the veil ( hoti en Christ:O i katargeitai: 2 Corinthians 3 : 14) . When the Jews are converted, the veil will be removed from them as well. "But we