French Literature Reviews - 2026
V. Delecroix, Apocalypse du politique
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Apocalypse du politique
Vincent Delecroix
Publication date: 20/10/2016
Publisher: DDB
ISBN: 978-2-220-08269-1
EAN: 9782220082691
Format: Large Format
Binding: Perfect bound
Page count: 362 p
Western modernity is commonly viewed as the process by which politics emancipated itself from religious tutelage. What the Jewish and Christian religions contributed was a break in the ties between the political and the sacred. They desacralized politics. This process complicated, and even reversed, the function that Europe had assigned to religion: that of founding and preserving the political and legal order.
There is, within biblical discourse, a force that strips power of its authority. One side of the theological-political looks to the past and maintains order: the figure of the divine Sovereign serves the powers of this world. But the other, messianic side looks toward the future of unconditional justice, seeing beyond politics. The image of the Kingdom replaces that of the King of Heaven. Transcendence no longer serves to justify, but rather to denounce the injustice of the present: the image of the Kingdom haunts our political regimes.
Its paradoxical presence is an apocalypse of the political. Perhaps this haunting presence is what we call democracy.
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An article on this work can be read on nonfiction.fr:
The relationship between religion and politics has long been a central concern within European philosophy, theology, and political theory. Western modernity is frequently interpreted through the lens of secularisation, wherein civil institutions gradually separated from ecclesiastical authority. Within the broader tradition of political theology, scholars have often examined how religious concepts inform secular governance. These ongoing discussions concern the historical and conceptual entanglements between sacred traditions and modern state structures.
Vincent Delecroix examines how Jewish and Christian traditions introduced a separation between the political and the sacred, complicating the traditional function of religion in preserving legal order. The volume explores the tension within biblical discourse between maintaining earthly power and looking toward a messianic future of unconditional justice. Readers interested in the intersections of philosophy, religion, and modern political regimes may find this text relevant to their study of contemporary democratic theory.