ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the debates around the messianic communities that are drawn out from readings of the letters of Saint Paul. As the author argues, the reflections on community in this debate should in the first place be understood in relation to Carl Schmitt’s account of the constitution of a community in the state of exception and his account of political theology that goes hand in hand with it. While Pauline communities and their constitution that is discovered by the contemporary philosophers offer a critique of Schmitt, at points they also continue his perspective. This is especially clear with respect to the role of the exception in the constitution of the messianic Pauline community. In particular, the author shows which type of “communities of the exception” one can deduct from Alain Badiou’s and Giorgio Agamben’s reading of Paul’s letters.
