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Introduction : divine violence and political fetishism -- The political theology of sovereignty -- In the maw of sovereignty -- Walter Benjamin's dissipated eschatology -- Waiting for justice -- Forgiveness, judgment and sovereign decision -- Sovereignty de-centered : the Hebrew republic -- Conclusion : the anarchist hypothesis.

Problem and Purpose. The Millerite Movement foundered after the non-realization ofits expectation regarding the second advent of Christ in 1844. Of the groups that sprouted from the movement, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has grown globally in 145 years to become the largest and most influential. While Adventists kept key elements of the Millerite premillennialist eschatology, they added some unique features. For example, they added: a sanctuary theology concerning Christ's mediatorial ministry and His work in a heavenly pre-advent judgment, the "third angel's message" (announced in Rev 14:12), and other teachings including the "latter rain," the "loud cry," health-reform, the seventh-day Sabbath and its special end-time relevance and a related concept of the mark and image of the beast through which they interpreted the Sunday-law controversy of the 1880s and 1890s. The purpose of this study is to trace the development of Adventist eschatology from 1884 through 1895. To accomplish this purpose, three contextual factors have been treated: (1) national efforts to achieve Sunday legislation, (2) the doctrine of righteousness by faith that received a new emphasis in 1888, and (3) organized labor. Method. This study employed the historical/documentary method of research using published primary sources. Secondary sources were utilized only for background purposes. Conclusions. The findings show that two of the factors--righteousness by faith and organized labor--added new dimensions to Seventh-day Adventist eschatology. Prior to the period treated (1884-1895), obedience to the commandments was central in Adventist teaching in preparation for the second advent of Christ. During the period, however, a new emphasis was placed on faith. Adventists now had a mature understanding of the "third angel's message" about those "that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Rev 14:12). With regard to organized labor, late nineteenth-century Adventists viewed the conflict between capital and labor as a crisis that presaged the second advent. As to Sunday legislation, even though it did not add new elements to Adventist eschatology, it did sharpen the focus of the eschatological beliefs already held by the denomination.

Woodrow Wilson's faith and foreign policy.

Multiple philosophical-theological efforts in the last century, from W. Benjamin to J. Caputo, have been centered on a messianic opposition to normative structures, a challenge that invokes a long history in the West of breaking down the codes of ordered, civilized and religious society. That such an apocalyptic fervor is nothing new to the history of theology should not surprise us. What should surprise us, however, is how infrequently we are able to see the larger pattern behind these particular movements. Taking up the recent emergence of 'queer theology' as the current manifestation of such a trend, I want to isolate and clarify the theological implications of comprehending the existence of humanity as a state of constantly 'being between'. What I argue is that developing a hermeneutics of eschatology that takes such tensions as foundational rather than merely heterodox indicates that the opposition of grace and law is to be understood not as a dualism to be overcome but as the structure of history itself. The question I am posing is this: to what degree does the queering or subversion of theological normativity, or the development of a 'theology against itself', allow us to subvert identitarian politics and to challenge the social and religious institutions that we are a part of? It is through the lens of 'queer theology' and its questioning of the existence of normativity itself that we are simultaneously returned to the basic structures that guide human life, while, at the same time, propelled forward into new configurations of resistance to just such structures. By firmly placing ourselves within this 'queer critique' we see the 'already-not yet' tension of eschatological thought not simply in religious terms, but in ones that reorient our relationship to the political and social orders of this world, calling for a permanent re-envisioning of norms as the individual—and the church—are found to be perpetually—and edifyingly—'against themselves'.

Martin Buber's political thought has enjoyed renewed attention lately, particularly his concept of "theopolitics," a type of political practice that recognizes God as the ultimate political authority. In Buber's biblical exegesis, theopolitics is a condition of everyday life in premonarchical Israel, but following the installation of the monarchy, it becomes a specialized activity of prophets, consisting chiefly in divinely commanded intercession against state actions. Buber suggests that a version of this prophetic activity is manifest in present-day socialist cooperatives, especially the kibbutzim. Indeed, for Buber, these cooperatives can be seen as laying the groundwork for messianic redemption. This essay probes some potentially troubling implications of Buber's theopolitical framework, taking objections raised in Walter Benjamin's correspondence as an entry point. A central concern for Benjamin is Buber's nationalist articulation of Jewish identity, which appears all the more problematic when considered in tandem with the teleological view of history evident in Buber's framework.

This paper argues that Thomas Hobbes's theory contains an account of progressive defragmentation and unification of power, accompanied by the progression in human reasoning capacities. If the consequence of human nature is abandonment of natural condition and subjection to a sovereign, then similar principles should apply to the sovereigns themselves, since Hobbes sees them as continuing to exist in the state of nature. In turn, the relations between sov- ereigns must also lead to defragmentation of political authority, either by conquest or through peaceful submission. Total defragmentation of power might also have eschatological consequences, as the unified power of one human being over the whole world would remove "external violence" as a cause of "the dissolution of a commonwealth" while the perfection of reason would progressively remove the "internal" causes. This is a hypothetical situation that could relate Hobbes's description of the Kingdom of God from Leviathan to his wider political theory by marking the single sovereign representative of now immortal all-encompass- ing Leviathan as the Antichrist and thus announcing the second coming of Christ. ; Argument ovog rada je da teorija Tomasa Hobsa sadrži ideju progresivnog ukrupnjavanja i ujedinjenja moći koju prati napredovanje ljudskog razuma. Ukoliko je napuštanje prirodnog stanja i potčinjavanje suverenu posledica ljudske prirode, slično bi trebalo da važi i za same suverene, pošto Hobs smatra da oni i dalje žive u prirodnom stanju. Prema tome, odnosi među suverenima trebalo bi takođe da vode do ukrupnjavanja političke vlasti, kako osvajanjem, tako i miroljubivom predajom vlasti. Eventualna potpuna defragmentacija moći može takođe imati i eshatološke posledice, pošto bi objedinjena moć jednog čoveka nad celim svetom uklonila nasilje koje je pretilo od drugih suverena kao razlog raspadanja države, dok bi napredak razuma postepeno uklonio njene unutrašnje nesavršenosti. Ova bi hipotetička situacija mogla povezati Hobsov opis carstva Božjeg iz Levijatana sa njegovom širom političkom teorijom: jedinstveni suvereni predstavnik (sada) besmrtnog i sveobuhvatnog levijatana bi se mogao smatrati Antihristom, što bi najavilo drugi Hristov dolazak.

This paper argues that Thomas Hobbes?s theory contains an account of
progressive defragmentation and unification of power, accompanied by the
progression in human reasoning capacities. If the consequence of human nature
is abandonment of natural condition and subjection to a sovereign, then
similar principles should apply to the sovereigns themselves, since Hobbes
sees them as continuing to exist in the state of nature. In turn, the
relations between sovereigns must also lead to defragmentation of political
authority, either by conquest or through peaceful submission. Total
defragmentation of power might also have eschatological consequences, as the
unified power of one human being over the whole world would remove ?external
violence? as a cause of ?the dissolution of a commonwealth? while the
perfection of reason would progressively remove the ?internal? causes. This
is a hypothetical situation that could relate Hobbes?s description of the
Kingdom of God from Leviathan to his wider political theory by marking the
single sovereign representative of now immortal all-encompassing Leviathan as
the Antichrist and thus announcing the second coming of Christ.