Introduction
What Is Theopolitics?
The human being is an animal which, when it lives among others of its species, has
need of a master.... But where will he get this master? Nowhere else but from the
human species. But then this master is exactly as much an animal who has need of
a master. Try as he may, therefore, there is no seeing how he can procure a supreme
power for public right that is itself just.... This problem is therefore the most diffi-
cult of all; indeed, its perfect solution is even impossible; out of such crooked wood
as the human being is made, nothing entirely straight can be fabricated.
—Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan AimThe covenant at Sinai signifies, according to its positive content, that the wander-
ing tribes accept JHWH “for ever and ever” as their King. According to its negative
content it signifies that no man is to be called king of the sons of Israel.
—Martin Buber, Kingship of GodLocating Theopolitics
“Antipolitics,” writes Michael Walzer, “is a kind of politics.” This puzzling state-
ment occurs in Walzer’s recent work on the Bible, which he calls “a political book,”
though it is one that has “no political theory” in it; its writers are “engaged with
politics” but are “not very interested in politics,” though he admits that “writers
who are uninterested in politics nonetheless have a lot to say that is politically
interesting.”^1 Walzer is a clear writer, so if these statements seem convoluted, this
may be due to the subject matter itself. Close examination of the relationship of
religion and politics can call into question our very understanding of the nature
of both “religion” and “politics” as distinct and separate spheres that can each
be described according to its own special set of characteristics. This is an incon-
venient situation for university departments like political science and religion,
which would like to assume that the objects of their study do in fact exist.
Martin Buber (1878–1965) encountered this problem when he attempted to
secure a position at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, founded on a European,
and particularly a German, model of higher education. Judah Magnes, the first
chancellor of the university, was eager to bring Buber, already well known as
a writer, editor, and speaker, to Palestine. However, as Paul Mendes-Flohr has