The “Body Politic” as a Category of Political Theology: Genesis of the Concept

Abstract

The article examines the concept of the “body politic”, the hypothesis of its origin and development, as well as the concepts of its application in historical, legal, philosophical, religious, and political discourses based on the tradition of Western political theology. The methodology used by the authors is the descriptive approach of the history of concepts. The study aims to explicate the meanings of the concept of “body politic” in the historical context of the formation of the terminological apparatus of modern legal, institutional and appellative political theology. To achieve this aim, the authors strive to 1) clarify the scope of the concept of “body politic” as a “category of analysis” of political theology; 2) verify the data obtained on specific historical examples borrowed from the potestar imagology and the history of both Roman Catholic and English canon law; 3) trace the evolution of the concept of “body politic” in the context of the change of monarchical forms of government by the republican ones; 4) to trace the convergence of the historical-legal and philosophical-religious optics of historical analysis to clarify the processes of transformation and diffusion of lacunar ethno-confessional identities in the symbolic chronotope.