The Metaphysics of Power: Understanding the Deep Structure of Ripening Being

Mounting a searing critique of Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmidt—and their broader influence on the contemporary Left, including the work of Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Žižek—Anthony Mansueto’s The Metaphysics of Power argues that the common flaw of all contemporary political projects—Left and Right—is a narrow strategic focus on achieving and holding state power. This focus is grounded in a doctrine of sovereignty (divine and human) rooted in a decisionist political theology, which derives ultimately from Paul of Tarsus and which made historic Christianity from the beginning an ideology of empire. In the place of this decisionist political theology he proposes that we understand Being—and thus God—as a relational, transformative generativity that acts only as final cause and only from outside space and time, making even divine sovereignty logically impossible. Seeking to become God, but trapped in a contingency that cannot be transcended, we create structures that attempt divinity by means of exploiting and oppressing others, structures which, like the commodification of labor power, ultimately strip us of our humanity, making resistance impossible. And yet we are also lured by the incredible beauty of God to mend the torn fabric of the universe, to build and rebuild relationships and institutions which challenge and nurture us, and thus to ripen a contingent being that will always fall short of its end but is capable of finding meaning and joy nonetheless.

Anthony E. Mansueto is a scholar of religion with roots in social theory, philosophy, and theology. He is president of Seeking Wisdom and currently serves as dean of arts, humanities, and social sciences at Ventura College.