K. Daniel Cho is a professor of education at Otterbein University, USA.Boštjan Nedoh is a research fellow at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Philosophy, Ljubljana.

With Political Theology and Its Discontents, K. Daniel Cho and Boštjan Nedoh present a series of powerful challenges to Carl Schmitt’s still-influential notion of political theology. Schmitt sometimes is simply dismissed for his Nazism. At other times, leftist critical engagements with him tend merely to appropriate his conceptions of sovereignty and the friend-enemy distinction as useful for radical leftism too. What distinguishes Political Theology and Its Discontents is that it convincingly demonstrates how bringing Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis to bear on Schmittian political theology utterly transforms the latter. The psychoanalytic reinterpretations of Schmitt’s ideas and texts offered by the essays in this volume reveal that neither politics nor theology can be limited to what Schmitt took them to be. Cho and Nedoh’s Political Theology and Its Discontents is a timely, invaluable, and highly original reconsideration of the contemporary interrelationships between politics and religion in Schmitt’s wake. Nobody concerned with our current geo-political circumstances can afford to ignore this path-breaking collection.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction, K. Daniel Cho and Boštjan NedohPart One: Three Essays on the Theory of the Political1. Freud’s critique of the political, K. Daniel Cho2. The people of the book: A psychoanalytic account, Abigail Kulisz3. Political theology of the as-if: Kelsen, Freud, fiction, Arthur BradleyPart Two: Imaginary Fathers, Real Woman4. Schreber’s theological materialism, Tadej Troha5. The imaginary phallus: The libidinal politics of the curse of Ham, Paul Eisenstein6. Touching the Imam’s body: The theological, the political, the psychoanalytical, Arsalan Reihanzadeh7. “Religion of the father”? Judaism as a politico-theological code of parenticide, Agata Bielik-RobsonPart Three: Four Chapters on the Concept of Left Political Theology8. The law of an unauthorized God, Todd McGowan9. Gaps of rest: Toward a political economy of laziness, Simon Hajdini10. Forcing the messiah: Paul, Rosenzweig, and Badiou, Kenneth Reinhard11. Wiederholung: Trauma and happiness in the Gospel according to Benjamin, Boštjan NedohNotesAbout the Authors

K. Daniel Cho is a professor of education at Otterbein University, USA.Boštjan Nedoh is a research fellow at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Philosophy, Ljubljana.

With Political Theology and Its Discontents, K. Daniel Cho and Boštjan Nedoh present a series of powerful challenges to Carl Schmitt’s still-influential notion of political theology. Schmitt sometimes is simply dismissed for his Nazism. At other times, leftist critical engagements with him tend merely to appropriate his conceptions of sovereignty and the friend-enemy distinction as useful for radical leftism too. What distinguishes Political Theology and Its Discontents is that it convincingly demonstrates how bringing Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis to bear on Schmittian political theology utterly transforms the latter. The psychoanalytic reinterpretations of Schmitt’s ideas and texts offered by the essays in this volume reveal that neither politics nor theology can be limited to what Schmitt took them to be. Cho and Nedoh’s Political Theology and Its Discontents is a timely, invaluable, and highly original reconsideration of the contemporary interrelationships between politics and religion in Schmitt’s wake. Nobody concerned with our current geo-political circumstances can afford to ignore this path-breaking collection.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction, K. Daniel Cho and Boštjan NedohPart One: Three Essays on the Theory of the Political1. Freud’s critique of the political, K. Daniel Cho2. The people of the book: A psychoanalytic account, Abigail Kulisz3. Political theology of the as-if: Kelsen, Freud, fiction, Arthur BradleyPart Two: Imaginary Fathers, Real Woman4. Schreber’s theological materialism, Tadej Troha5. The imaginary phallus: The libidinal politics of the curse of Ham, Paul Eisenstein6. Touching the Imam’s body: The theological, the political, the psychoanalytical, Arsalan Reihanzadeh7. “Religion of the father”? Judaism as a politico-theological code of parenticide, Agata Bielik-RobsonPart Three: Four Chapters on the Concept of Left Political Theology8. The law of an unauthorized God, Todd McGowan9. Gaps of rest: Toward a political economy of laziness, Simon Hajdini10. Forcing the messiah: Paul, Rosenzweig, and Badiou, Kenneth Reinhard11. Wiederholung: Trauma and happiness in the Gospel according to Benjamin, Boštjan NedohNotesAbout the Authors