ABSTRACT
By reconstructing Schmitt's interpretation of Hobbes and Hegel and introducing the great classics of modern “politics”, this chapter highlights the central role of the theological-political paradigm and facilitates an understanding of the modern legal and political system. Schmitt's interpretation of the Leviathan revolution reveals that individualism and contractualism are not sufficient to contemplate order but refer to something beyond the order depicted in liberal discourse. The realistic incipit of Political Theology, seemingly so clear and linear, needs to be interpreted in order to avoid certain hermeneutical pitfalls. The centrality of political theology in Schmitt certainly does not depend on his political theory being founded in divine revelation, but on the fact that the “rationale” of modern politics can only be understood through the theologicalpolitical paradigm from the viewpoint of its functional and formal characteristics.
