Sovereignty: God, State, and Self

God, State, and Self

Author: Jean Bethke Elshtain

"A provocative, counter-culture narrative of Western political thought...an invigorating book, brimming with erudition and discernment."--Times Literary Supplement(London)

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Summary

"A provocative, counter-culture narrative of Western political thought...an invigorating book, brimming with erudition and discernment."--Times Literary Supplement(London)

Description

In this seminal work in the fields of political history and political theory, Jean Bethke Elshtain shows how the powerful notion of sovereignty, complete independence and self-government, has irrevocably sculpted contemporary notions of God, state and self. Elshtain examines the conceptual underpinnings of sovereignty, considering the early modern ideas of God that formed the basis for the modern paradigm of the sovereign state, and making the unprecedented claim that political theories of state sovereignty fuel contemporary understandings of sovereignty of the self, arguing, in other words, that when we understand why we have the politics we have, we will understand what makes humans themselves tick. The implications of Elshtain's monumental thesis go as far as to suggest that self-sovereignty, which understands the self to be an independent, self-sufficient entity, undermines the bedrock on which human communities are fundamentally sustained. In thoughtful, provocative prose, Elshtain explores the connections between our political and ethical convictions, changing forever the way we understand the notion of sovereignty.

About the Author

Jean Bethke Elshtain is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago. Among her many books are "Just War against Terror" and "Women and War".