“Real possibility” or “Impossible reality”? Carl Schmitt’s Theo-Political Hyphen and Inventive Theology

This paper explores the concept of the “theo-political” within the paradigm of inventive theology. Such a theology methodologically abstracts from classical dogmatic or hermeneutic content. It asks primarily the question of the possibility of believing and making to believe. Informed by philosophical rhetoric (amongst others, Chaim Perelman) and postmodern critique, inventive theology proposes to be pistology before becoming a practice of idea-construction. Postmodern theology is no longer a standalone operation or a master-discourse, but a practice of connectiveness, a theology of and in relation to something. The hypen in the notion of the “theo-political” marks this interdependency of theological and—in this case—political approaches. The paper analyzes Schmitt’s insights in the theo-political in three steps. After sketching out briefly his definitionofthe political, it will speculatively reconstruct Schmitt’s ontology to revert to his (non-outspoken) theology as it appears in his eschatologicalworldview. Then it will connect Schmitt’s politicalontologywith the rhetoricalparadigm and will close with some brief remarks on liberal-inventive theo-politics. Liberal-inventive politicaltheology could then be defined as “talking-cure” that will hinder the effectuation of Schmitt’s real possibilities of politics by working semantic and ethical “inventiveness” in the Messianic light of the unreal possibility.