Leviathan as Mortal God: On the Contemporaneity of Thomas Hobbes

The political significance of “theocracy” has returned to public consciousness through the events of world politics.1 A piece of history, which since the Enlightenment we had laid ad acta,2 reels us in. What was held to be “overcome,” today speaks anew with power. The conflict between the Enlightenment and the regimen of the theocratic churches is in no way laid to rest. Thus, in order to understand the intellectual situation of our time, we must learn to understand the conflict between Enlightenment and Orthodoxy at its source. For this reason, today, I turn back to Hobbes again and again. Thomas…