Erik Peterson: Monotheism as a Political Problem

A Theology of History?

Abstract

Erik Peterson’s Monotheism as Political Problem (1935) occupies itself with the relations between theology and politics implicit in the constitution of the trinitarian dogma of the early centuries of Christianity, in conversation with Carl Schmitt and in opposition to all totalitarianism. Peterson contests the existence of an indissoluble link between theological concepts and particular political situations. During the years of National Socialism in Germany, Peterson notes the impossibility of an immediate transposition of the theological belief in the sovereignty of Christ into political categories: a “political theology” understood as the religious justification of the existent is unacceptable from a Christian point of view. The German scholar shows the importance of the cosmic and eschatological horizon in the understanding of the monarchy of the triune God.