The mystery of evil : Benedict XVI and the end of days / Giorgio Agamben ; translated by Adam Kotsko.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Agamben, Giorgio, 1942- author.

Series:

Meridian (Stanford, Calif.)

Meridian: crossing aesthetics

Standardized Title:

Mistero del male. English

Language:

English

Italian

Subjects (All):

Benedict XVI, Pope, 1927-2022--Abdication, 2013.

Benedict.

Benedict XVI, Pope, 1927-2022.

Political theology.

Good and evil.

Eschatology.

Abdication.

Physical Description:

x, 69 pages ; 19 cm.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2017]

Summary:

In 2013, Benedict XVI became only the second pope in the history of the Catholic Church to resign from office. In this brief but illuminating study, Giorgio Agamben argues that Benedict's gesture, far from being solely a matter of internal ecclesiastical politics, is exemplary in an age when the question of legitimacy has been virtually left aside in favor of a narrow focus on legality. This reflection on the recent history of the Church opens out into an analysis of one of the earliest documents of Christianity: the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, which stages a dramatic confrontation between the "man of lawlessness" and the enigmatic katechon, the power that holds back the end of days. In Agamben's hands, this infamously obscure passage reveals the theological dynamics of history that continue to inform Western culture to this day. Book jacket.

Contents:

I The Mystery of the Church 1

II Mysterium iniquitatis: History as Mystery 19.

Notes:

"Originally published in Italian in 2013 under the title Il mistero del male. Benedetto XVI e la fine dei tempi."

Translated from the Italian.

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Online version: Agamben, Giorgio, 1942- Mystery of evil.

ISBN:

9781503600935

1503600939

9781503602731

1503602737

OCLC:

962068798