Potentia/potestas absoluta: How the Jurists of the 14th Century Portrayed the Power of the Prince (original) (raw)

The Classic Age of the Distinction between God's Absolute and Ordered Power: In, Around, and After the Pontificate of John XXII (1316-1334)

Franciscan Studies, 76, 2018

In this paper, I shall inquire into the story of the distinction between God's absolute and ordered power (‘potentia Dei absoluta’ and ‘potentia Dei ordinata’) in the fourteenth century. This period saw the emergence of orientations that would prove decisive for the fate of modernity. In my analysis, I will try to explain the reasons, both historical and doctrinal, for the success of such a distinction as a specifically legal question during this key period. I shall dwell, in particular, on the years from 1316 to the 1330s, under John XXII’s pontificate, explaining the relevant religious and political issues of those times. To this end, I will examine the perspective of John XXII himself in relation to his two great doctrinal rivals Meister Eckhart (†c.1328) and William of Ockham (†1347), and pay special attention to the dispute between the pope and the Franciscans over evangelical poverty.

On The Idea Of Potency. Juridical and Theological Roots of the Western Cultural Tradition, Edinburgh University Press 2016

On the Idea of Potency. Juridical and Theological Roots of the Western Cultural Tradition, 2016

A Critique of the Metaphysical Concepts of Power and Potency in the History of Western Jurisprudence. Sweeping through the history of Western philosophy of law the Author deals with the metaphysical idea of potency as defined by Spinoza and Nietzsche, upsetting entrenched theories of jurisprudence. Castrucci first addresses how the idea of potency can change the meaning of the power ascribed to an omnipotent God. This brings together classical Greek philosophy with Jewish biblical exegesis, which the Author links through the juncture of Christianity. He then relates potency to the classic philosophical tradition in Aristotle's Metaphysics and its Arabic interpretations, particularly those of Averroès. This leads to the genesis of natural law theory in Western philosophy, from Augustine to Aquinas and from Duns Scotus to Ockham. Moving on, the Author examines the inherently problematic concept of political theology, pitting Spinozan-Nietzschean potency against Kant and the Enlightenment natural law to reveal the weakness inherent in the Enlightenment system. Finally, Castrucci applies the theories of Carl Schmitt to the philosophical rationalism of the Western tradition, showing how it has failed to contain absolute power in a juridical sense.

Celia López Alcalde, Josep Puig Montada, Pedro Roche Arnas † (eds.), Legitimation of Political Power in Medieval Thought. Acts of the XIX Annual Colloquium of the Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale, Alcalá, 18-20 September 2013, Turnhout, Brepols, 2018,XII+456 pp. ISB...

Revista española de filosofía medieval, 2020

It reflects the results of the colloquium relying on several original texts (see the useful index of manuscripts).

The Medieval Idea of Legitimacy and the King’s Two Bodies

Philosophy, Communication, Media Sciences, 2015

Based on Ernst Kantorowicz's work The King's Two Bodies, this paper intends to show that the idea of the sacred nature of political power, of the legitimacy which transcends the secular institutions is still alive in collective mentality. Analyzing the symbolism of the duality of the king's body (divine and human), Ernst Kantorowicz argues that the ideological foundations of the modern state are founded on in the idea that the kingdom is a mystical body whose head is the kingthis is possible through the divine hypostasis of his body. According to the fundamental Christian ideology of kingship, in the first centuries of the Middle Ages, the king is human by nature and divine by grace. Also according to medieval mentality, the human side of the king embodies a veritable quantity of opposite characteristics the mystery of the modern state can be interpreted on the level of a political philosophy which does not exclude the theological dimension of the secular society.