Divine Law – Annihilating Violence: The Articulation between Walter Benjamin, Jewishness, and Abolishing Capitalism

Political Theology, vol. 27, pp. 782–788

Abstract

Walter Benjamin defends divine violence as a form of emancipatory law–annihilating violence. In his account, divine violence disrupts worldly violence (the violence of law) without appealing to the same logic as worldly violence. In other words, divine violence is not merely the same tool employed in a different manner but a qualitatively different form of violence. Benjamin argues that the violence of law emerges from its governing force, its ability to bind or impose itself. He aims to describe a form of normativity that does not entail a binding power – further, that prohibits binding power. I will argue that this can be understood best via the investigation of the two prohibitions mentioned in the text: murder and lying. I will extend Benjamin's analysis to the prohibition of theft. I will try to relate these three prohibitions in a way that demonstrates that they pursue the same objective. They ultimately prohibit the capitalist mode of existence.

Authors 1

1. Yonathan Listik corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Leiden