Ernst Kantorowicz’s Synthronos: New Perspectives on Medieval Charisma

Abstract

In this text, the author analyzes the notion of charisma that appears implicitly in the medieval political theology of Ernst H. Kantorowicz. The text to be analyzed is Synthronos, a manuscript from 1951 on the iconography of the sharing-throne between gods and kings, which the author was unable to publish before he died. The notion of charisma is surveyed in St. Paul’s theology of grace and Max Weber’s sociology of dominion in order to find a third way to broaden the definition of charisma. Finally, a new perspective is proposed, based on literary and artistic representations, along with visual rhetoric, as driving forces of the ruler’s gifts.