Providence as and against Progress: Giuseppe Mazzini’s Political Theology

• In Event: Political Theory without the Bannister of Progress

Abstract

Carl Schmitt's 1922 work, Politische Theologie, emerged as a direct response to Mikhail Bakunin's 1871 polemic, The Political Theology of Mazzini and the International. While Schmitt's text has gained a position of prominence in the study of Western political theology, Bakunin's embrace of materialism and rejection of Mazzini's supposedly idealistic metaphysical and epistemological assumptions has relegated his polemic to the sidelines of the field. Surprisingly, Giuseppe Mazzini's reflections on the intricate relationship between religion and politics, the focal point of Bakunin's critique, have not received considerable scholarly attention. Despite a renewed interest in Anglophone political theory on Mazzini's contributions on topics such as cosmopolitanism, republicanism, European integration, and humanitarian intervention, the religious underpinnings of his thought have been discounted amid this revival.
This article addresses this gap by pursuing three objectives. Firstly, I offer an account of Mazzini's understanding of Providence as a counterpoint to what he perceives as the materialistic conceptions of social and political progress of liberalism and communism. In doing so, I elucidate how Providence serves as the foundation for Mazzini's better-known advocacy for national liberation, republican association, and transnational federation, ultimately envisioning a "United States of Europe." Secondly, I examine certain challenges within Mazzini's theory stemming from the interplay between his notions of Providence and progress. These challenges arise from his occasionally inconsistent and underdeveloped articulation of the link between individual action and the providential movement of history. Lastly, I conclude with reflections on the impact of viewing the nation, as opposed to sovereignty or the state, as an alternative starting point for scholarship on modern political theology.

Author

• Anthony Dean Norton, University of California, Los Angeles