Messianesimo e teologia politica.

Il katechon tra Taubes e Schmitt

Abstract

Messianism and Political Theology. The katechon between Jacob Taubes and Carl Schmitt. The aim of this paper is to investigate the link between aesthetics and politics nested in the image of the katechon evoked by Paul in the second letter to the Thessalonians. An image which apparently alludes to the restraining force which holds this world delaying the Second Coming. My purpose is to show how the image of the katechon has become conceptually intermixed with a symbolic and figurative legitimation of political power. While Carl Schmitt held the passage on the katechon to ground the Christian doctrine of state power as an alternative to nihilism, Jacob Taubes reading of Pauline messianism shows how the katechon can be considered as a conservative force. This article focuses on the recurrence of katechon in contemporary continental philosophy in opposition at the alarming announcement that the End is now