In the Belly of the Leviathan? Carl Schmitt and Erik Peterson on the Political Theology of Martyrdom

Abstract

The controversy between Erik Peterson and Carl Schmitt about the meaning of a “Political Theology” attracts as much attention as ever. The article analyzes a somewhat neglected part of this controversy: the Christian martyrdom. The different perspectives held by the theologian and the legal scholar on the nonviolent self-sacrifice of Christian believers are reviewed and placed in the context of their respective thought. The recent proposal that Schmitt’s rejection of the martyrdom (based on Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan) is a legitimate defense of the religious neutrality of the modern state, while Peterson’s apocalyptic theology fails to acknowledge this very neutrality, is indeed highly questionable. Instead, Schmitt’s Political Theology II shows that even the late Schmitt remained committed to a totalitarian account of the political that leaves no room for martyrdom and for Christianity based on normative convictions.