Against the Backdrop of Sovereignty and Absolutism: The Theology of God’s Power and Its Bearing on the Western Legal Tradition, 1100–1600 (Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions, 34)

Book info: Against the Backdrop of Sovereignty and Absolutism: The Theology of God’s Power and Its Bearing on the Western Legal Tradition, 1100–1600 (Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions, 34) (Hardcover, 256 pages) – Brill, 2022. Language: English.

With a foreword by Diego Quaglioni This book attempts to determine the degree to which the modern fate of the Western legal tradition depends on one of the most long-standing debates of the Middle Ages, the distinction between potentia Dei absoluta and ordinata (God’s absolute and ordered power). The mediaeval investigation into God’s attributes was originally concerned with the problem of divine almightiness. It underwent a slow but steady displacement from the territory of theology to the freshly emerging proceedings of legal analysis. Here, based on the distinction, late-mediaeval lawyers worked out a new terminology to define the extent of the power-holder’s authority. This effort would give rise, during the early modern era, to the gradual establishment of the legal-political framework represented by the concepts of the prince and sovereignty. Editorial Reviews About the Author Massimiliano Traversino Di Cristo, University of Trento, has three PhDs, in Law, Theology, and Humanities, from the Universities of London (Birkbeck College), Geneva, and Trento, respectively. His monographs and articles concentrate on mediaeval and modern ideas, including Diritto e teologia alle soglie dell’età moderna (2015).