On Agamben, Donatism, Pelagianism, and the Missing Links

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Peter Iver Kaufman shows that, although Giorgio Agamben represents Augustine as an admired pioneer of an alternative form of life, he also considers Augustine an obstacle keeping readers from discovering their potential. Kaufman develops a compelling, radical alternative to progressive politics by continuing the line of thought he introduced in On Agamben, Arendt, Christianity, and the Dark Arts of Civilization. Kaufman starts with a comparison of Agamben and Augustines projects, both of which challenge reigning concepts of citizenship. He argues that Agamben, troubled by Augustines opposition to Donatists and Pelagians, failed to forge links between his own redefinitions of authenticity and the coming community and the bishops understandings of grace, community, and compassion. On Agamben, Donatism, Pelagianism, and the Missing Links sheds new light on Augustines political theology, introducing ways it can be used as a resource for alternative polities while supplementing Agambens scholarship and scholarship on Agamben.

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Kaufmans analyses take us back in timebut also strangely back to ourselvesin the name of a vexed and even traumatic desire for political alternatives. In this journey Kaufman shows himself to be the historian of Christianity able to send vivifying shockwaves through the many contemporary discussions of political theology in critical theory and continental philosophy. No one who attends to Kaufmans Augustine will ever see Agambenor indeed their own political situationin the same way again. -- Ward Blanton, University of Kent, UK

Author Bio

Peter Iver Kaufman is Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, and holds the George Matthews and Virginia Brinkley Modlin Chair in Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, USA.