A Book Recommendation for Memorial Day: Migrations of the Holy

Last updated on: May 25, 2015 at 9:38 am by Kyle Roberts

A Book Recommendation for Memorial Day: Migrations of the Holy 2015-05-25T09:38:55-05:00 Kyle Roberts

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In Migrations of the Holy, a collection of essays of political theology, William Cavanaugh details the history of the construction of the modern nation-State (the “State” is neither a necessary phenomenon (inscribed in the nature of creation or of humanity) nor (as he persuasively argues) a God-given, divinely ordained institution. , and shows how the formation of the modern nation-State originated in acts of violence and the centralizing of power in order to defend or assert violence, and still feeds on violence and centralizing power for the perpetuation of national borders–and the promise of “safety” offered by vigilant defense of those borders.

As power was consolidation around “royal” centers, which offered the promise of security, safety, and prosperity for its subjects, the very notion of the “holy” (which to that point had been relegated to God or the gods (religion was the realm of the “sacred”) migrated to the State. The sovereignty which had been accorded to God and the worship which had been directed toward God, now became the claim of the State. The State ultimately took the place, then, of God and government and politics essentially made religion obsolete. Or rather, the State subsumed religion into its realm and flattened its power. We can see the submission of religion to the powers of the State and the migration of the Holy and the Sovereign from God to the State in both liberal and conservative forms of Christianity in America.

Recently, on my Facebook feed, I read a comment from a patriotic American, to the effect that we should thank our servicemen and servicewomen because they are the only thing that stands between us and tyranny. And few (me neither) that we should honor those who give their lives for others. But it seems to me that we should also remember–as Stanley Hauerwas would urge us–that we always stand in danger of becoming tyrannical. Cavanaugh’s lesson in the “migration of the holy” and in the conditionality of the State is a good resource for maintaining that awareness.

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Memorial Day

migrations of the holy

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William Cavanaugh

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