Against the backdrop of sovereignty and absolutism : : the theology of God's power and its bearing on the Western legal tradition, 1100-1600 / / by Massimiliano Traversino Di Cristo.

• Superior document: History of science and medicine library
• VerfasserIn: Traversino, Massimiliano,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: History of science and medicine library.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 pages)

This book attempts to determine the degree to which the modern fate of the Western legal tradition depends on one of the most long-standing debates of the Middle Ages, the distinction between potentia Dei absoluta and ordinata (God's absolute and ordered power). The mediaeval investigation into God's attributes was originally concerned with the problem of divine almightiness but underwent a slow but steady displacement from the territory of theology to the freshly emerging proceedings of legal analysis. Here, based on the distinction, late-mediaeval lawyers worked out a new terminology to define the extent of the power-holder's authority. This effort would give rise, during the early modern era, to the gradual establishment of the legal-political framework represented by the concepts of the prince and sovereignty.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. A Normative History of Power: -- The Distinction between potentia Dei absoluta and ordinata -- 2. The Theology of God's Power as an Archaeology of the Modern Notion of Power -- 3. The Classic Age of the Distinction: The Pontificate of John XXII (1316-34) -- 4. The Distinction in the Early-Modern Era: -- Bruno, Gentili, and the Sixteenth-Century Debate on Native Americans -- 5. Gentili's Religion and the Secularization of the Theology of God's Power -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- List of Works Cited -- Index of Names.