{"id":10649,"date":"2026-06-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10649"},"modified":"2025-12-14T16:02:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:02:37","slug":"looking-at-eric-santners-book-2016-the-weight-of-all-flesh-part-20-of-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10649","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Eric Santner\u2019s Book (2016)\u00a0The Weight of All Flesh\u00a0(Part 20 of 28)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0412 Let me go through some of the items that Santner examined in the course of his discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Paul Marat, the one who died in a bathtub, may have thought that he was an angel, but his assassin Charlotte Corday, thought he was a devil (Preface 0.2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Shakespeare\u2019s The Merchant of Venice<\/em>, Portia, in the guise of the lawyer Balthazar, serves as an angel, praising the laws of the city (Lecture 1.2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Kafka\u2019s stories, various bureaucrats act as messengers, but have no truth, hence, no message to tell (Lecture 1.4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0413 Professor Bonnie Honig adds Herman Melville\u2019s Captain Ahab to the list.  Ahab is a devil who wants to deliver a message to the leviathan that stumped him (First Comments).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moby Dick<\/em> portrays the dangers of mercantilism as brilliantly as The Merchant of Venice<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0414 In addition, Santner\u2019s key terms, normative<\/em>, somatic<\/em> and flesh<\/em>, correspond to the columns of the angelic model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The<\/em> flesh<\/em> corresponds to possibility.  The<\/em> somatic<\/em> emerges from and situates the flesh<\/em>. The normative<\/em> brings the<\/em> somatic<\/em>into relation with the possibilities inherent in the flesh<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0415 The sovereign office<\/em> compares to the angelic office<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one who occupies the office<\/em> is more than he otherwise would be<\/em>.  The king would be just another person<\/em>.  The angel would be nothin<\/em>g.  Or worse, the angel would retain its office while proclaiming a false message.  Similarly, the mortal body of the ignoble prince<\/em> grows corrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0416 Erik Peterson concludes his 1935 book with this: Knowledge of God<\/em> culminates in praise of God<\/em>.  Theology builds into doxology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0417 For Santner, doxology takes on a life of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theologically informed acclamations<\/em> may be transubstantiated into political glorification<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0418 How is this so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sovereign offices<\/em> occupy the same slot as the angelic offices<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theological acclamations<\/em> always carry political undertones<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A political slogan<\/em> may sound identical to a theological message<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0419 Both angels<\/em> and sovereigns<\/em> proclaim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angels<\/em> proclaim the actions, laws and decrees of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late medieval and early modern periods, the king,<\/em> or rather, his ministers, proclaimed sovereign actions, laws and decrees in the name of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In modernism, the same bureaucrats proclaim in the name of the People<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe, they do so in the name of institutions that stand in for the People<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to see what is upstairs<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do administrators stand for anything, other than their appointed duties?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0420 Both angel and king situate the subject,<\/em> the regular folk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agamben argues that traditional acclamations of the king\u2019s legitimacy<\/em> (or kingliness<\/em>) weighted the occupant of the sovereign office<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weight of the king\u2019s flesh<\/em> is somatic (soma <\/em>is \u201cbody\u201d<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobility<\/em> supplements the king\u2019s mortal body<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0421 The king\u2019s glorious body<\/em> congeals vibrant doxological matter<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The noble flesh of the king<\/em> appears to embody an angelic message: This mortal being<\/em> serves a royal destiny<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0422 Similarly, the truth of God<\/em> congeals vibrant doxological matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, what is the weight of an angel\u2019s flesh?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Word and song<\/em> accompanies the angelic office<\/em>.  An angel<\/em> embodies word and song<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0423 These words and songs are witnessed by the folk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0424 So is the mortal body of the king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0425 Is the supplement of liturgy<\/em> necessary?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The king has a mortal body.  Why does he need a glorious one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does a political theology of sovereignty<\/em> require a theological oikos-onomy of glory?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

0426 If so, then the supplement is foundational.  It is the libidinal oikos-onomic base<\/em> that shapes the political bond<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0427 This logic seems both circular and foundational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Christianity\u2019s divine Oikos<\/em>, doxologies appear to be a mode of God\u2019s own Self-glorification<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0428 One problem is that God does not have a Self, but that does not matter for this argument.  The angels are singing about something up there<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it matter whether the words and songs are about God\u2019s Self (not Christian doctrine, since God is a Household)<\/em> or the contiguity between the Father and the Son (which is not a Self, but a connection that may be symbolized by a name)?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

0429 I suppose this technical aside sounds neurotic, consistent with a picture of circular logic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, this is the stuff of obsessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why else would Santner give these lectures?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why else would anyone consider them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0412 Let me go through some of the items that Santner examined in the course of his discussion. Jean-Paul Marat, the one who died in a bathtub, may have thought that he was an angel, but his assassin Charlotte Corday, thought he was a devil (Preface 0.2). In Shakespeare\u2019s The Merchant of Venice, Portia, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at Eric Santner\u2019s Book (2016)\u00a0The Weight of All Flesh\u00a0(Part 20 of 28) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=10649\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Eric Santner\u2019s Book (2016)\u00a0The Weight of All Flesh\u00a0(Part 20 of 28) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0412 Let me go through some of the items that Santner examined in the course of his discussion. 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