Abstract

Understanding intellectual lineages is vital if we are to understand our own era more clearly and deeply. It is not enough to investigate this or that figure in isolation. An author who is worth reading embodies many forebears, so by recognizing them, one comes to understand not only the work of a given individual but also much larger currents that have shaped and that continue to shape the often hidden intellectual architecture of our time. Carl Schmitt is particularly instructive in this regard, because he drew upon—indeed, foregrounded—political and religious figures with much in common. At the same time, what…