HEINRICH MEIER AND THE CHALLENGE OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY

This paper offers a short overview of Heinrich Meier"s books on Carl Schmitt"s political theology, namely Carl Schmitt und Leo Strauss, and Die Lehre Carl Schmitts. These writings, published respectively in 1988 and 1994, and recently translated into Italian by Cantagalli (Siena), have raised both enthusiastical appraisal and fierce criticism. The gist of Meier"s interpretation is the following: the core of Schmitt"s thought is his Christian faith. Schmitt"s political doctrine must be unterstood as political theology, that is, as a political doctrine which claims to be grounded on divine revelation. The fundamental attitude of the political theologian, therefore, is pious obedience to God"s unfathomable will. The hypothesis of the paper is that Meier"s reading, which from a historical point of view might appear as highly controversial, is essentially the attempt to articulate the fundamental alternative between political theology and political philosophy. Meier"s alleged stylization of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss is a form of "platonism", i.e., a theoretical purification aimed at a clear formulation of what he means by "the theologico-political problem".