Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Political Science
Advisor
Susan Buck-Morss
Committee Members
Jack Jacobs
Carol Gould
Subject Categories
History of Philosophy | Political Science | Political Theory | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Keywords
thomas hobbes, bruno bauer, john maynard keynes, eschatology, political theology
Abstract
A long-standing political-theological critique contends that liberalism lacks the capacity to address theological challenges, and qualitative political challenges more generally. This charge is prevalent in our current age of crises, when the capacity to address such challenges is essential to any political tradition’s self-legitimation. I argue that the liberal tradition, broadly conceived, has long contended with theological challenges, particularly during modern revolutionary periods. Theological discourses, especially eschatological ones, circulate widely in these moments. Modern political actors impute cosmic significance to the events of their present, with a central analogy crystallizing between revolution and apocalypse. Reading major theorists of three modern revolutions through this analogical lens—Thomas Hobbes on the English Civil Wars, Bruno Bauer on the Märzrevolution, and John Maynard Keynes on the October Revolution—this dissertation sketches how the modern liberal tradition has been shaped by the interpolation of eschatological tropes across the terrains of theology, politics, and economics.
Recommended Citation
Wycoff, Asher J., "Numbered, Weighed, Divided: Revolution and/as Apocalypse in the Modern Liberal Tradition" (2023). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5316
Included in
History of Philosophy Commons, Political Theory Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons