The Schmittian Messiah in Agamben's<i>The Time That Remains</i>

Abstract

the New Testament writings attributed to Paul have much to say on contemporary debates over politics and religious tradition. 1 Unlike other thinkers who have turned to Paul at moments of crisis and innovation, Badiou, Z iz ek, and Agamben neither write as theologians nor profess Christianity. In what some have called our postsecular present, religious tradition has become a serious category of analysis in circles of political and cultural theory for the first time. Taking the measure of this new intellectual trend calls for careful readings of books on the subject, among the most interesting of which is Agamben's The Time That Remains, a series of seminar lectures (given in Paris, Verona, and Berkeley during 1998 -99) that explores the influence of Paul's letters on messianic thought. Weaving in and out of the Greek text of Romans, other New Testament texts, and numerous works of modern political and cultural theory, Agamben argues that Paul's letters represent the "fundamental messianic text for the Western tradition" (T, p. 1).