Ван де Валл Бен

The Political Theology of Sphere Sovereignty

2026 · ARTICLE · en

In an article published in 1965, Carl Schmitt discusses political theology in the context of Protestant legal theories and calls for more political theological reflection on Calvinist thought. In this paper, I intend to answer Schmitt’s call and adopt his political theological method as a ‘sociology of juristic concepts’, and apply it to the concept of ‘sphere sovereignty’ that was developed by Dutch Neo-Calvinist thinkers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In contrast to the decisionist concept of sovereignty that Schmitt derived from Catholic authors, the Neo-Calvinist concept of sphere sovereignty is intended to limit the power of the sovereign and secure the independence of other institutions, primarily that of the church. A political theology of sphere sovereignty simultaneously contributes to Max Weber’s study of Calvinist economic influence on modernity. On this basis, some preliminary conclusions are provided about the relationship between Calvinism and secular modernity.

Political existentiality in Carl Schmitt; reenchanting the political

2025 · ARTICLE · en

Carl Schmitt described the political in existential terms. The political consists in the distinction between friend and enemy, a distinction between collectivities that are existentially different. This led Richard Wolin to label Schmitt a “political existentialist” whose work relies on a specific cultural and philosophical climate of “vitalism.” Consequently, Schmitt’s thought is treated as ideology by Wolin. Instead of focusing on Schmitt’s underlying ideological affinity with a particular cultural climate, this paper attempts to conceptualize the notion of “political existentiality” as a crucial element in Schmitt’s understanding of the political and defend it as a notion that reveals something about the political condition itself. In order to understand the meaning of existentiality, we will conceptualize it against the background of Max Weber’s disenchantment thesis and conclude that through the notion of political existentiality Schmitt conceptualizes the political sphere as a locus of meaning and values and thus reenchants the political.

The Political Implications of State Neutrality as a Range Concept

2024 · ARTICLE · en

The Invisible Enemy as Absolute Enemy: What Can Carl Schmitt Teach us about War against a Virus?

2022 · ARTICLE · en

Through a discussion of Carl Schmitt's work this paper explores the theoretical implications of a war fought against a non-human enemy and suggests that Schmitt's work provides a useful framework of analysis for understanding the martial rhetoric that has surrounded Covid-19 policies. In Schmitt’s work we can identify the intricate relation between the absolutization and dehumanization of the enemy on the one hand and the dissolution of the distinction between the public and private sphere on the other. Schmitt’s warnings about the dangers of a global war in the name of humanity prove relevant to the war against a virus.

Verlichting en traditie; de strijd om de moderne tijd in het Maastrichtse boek

2017 · ARTICLE · nl

Liberalisme-kritiek vanuit een geopolitieke benadering

2016 · ARTICLE · nl

Het multiculturalismedebat en de terugkeer van de politiek

2014 · ARTICLE · nl