Bryant and Caputo, sitting in a tree

This Bryant post reminds me of my Christian compatriot Caputo. First Bryant:

"Many of the concepts surrounding the modern understanding of sovereignty are, in fact, secularized theological concepts.  Part of the project of atheology would thus involve overcoming a certain framework of sovereignty. [...] One strategy would be to abolish the place or site (remember we’re talking about structure, not content) of sovereignty altogether.

"In this regard, 'an-archy' doesn’t mean 'without law', but 'without ultimate or transcendent authority deciding the law. [...] The place or site of politics [...] would not be the place of the norm or the rule, of that which is already counted, but would rather be the exception, that which is not counted, that for which there is no norm [....] where the work of thought and practice emerges deciding to count the exception and reconfigure the entire world based on that exception."

Caputo on sovereignty:


"Is there something 'unconditional' that is nonetheless without 'sovereignty?' [...] What Derrida calls the unconditional call is perfectly capable of being described as a ghost, as a shade or specter, a demi-being, not real enough to do anything but able only to haunt us with uncanny possibilities, above all, the haunting possibility of the impossible."

On the exceptional in law:

"It thinks in terms of the singularity of the situation. [...] There’s the law, and then there’s this concrete situation in which the law has to be brought to bear. So, the law has to be brought to bear, but there’s an emphasis on the flexibility of the law. There’s no attempt or element of trying to do away with the law, or with obligation or with the demands of justice. But, there is an attempt to be flexible and to allow a maximum amount of leeway in adjusting to the singularity of the situation."

Another point of confluence, first Bryant from the above post:

"A de-theologization of the concept of sovereignty would involve placing sovereignty not in the hands of a monarch or dictator, but in the hands of the multitude.  That is the basic idea of both communism and anarchism.  It is the common or the community that both possesses and exercises sovereignty."

 Caputo in the first post of this thread:

"What would it be like were there a politics of and for the children, who are the future; a politics not of sovereignty, of top–down power, but a politics that builds from the bottom up, where ta me onta (I Cor 1:28) enjoy pride of place and a special privilege? What would a political order look like if the last are first, if everything turned on lifting up the lowliest instead of letting relief trickle down from the top?"