
In the Beginning Was the State
Description
Alles über E-Books | Antworten auf Fragen rund um E-Books, Kopierschutz und Dateiformate finden Sie in unserem Info- & Hilfebereich.
Ophir focuses on three distinct theocratic formations: the rule of disaster, where catastrophes are used as means of governance; the biopolitical rule of the holy, where divine violence is spatially demarcated and personally targeted; and the rule of law where divine violence is vividly remembered and its return is projected, anticipated, and yet postponed, creating a prolonged lull for the text's present.
Different as these formations are, Ophir shows how they share an urform that anticipates the main outlines of the modern European state, which has monopolized the entire globe. A critique of the modern state, the book argues, must begin in revisiting the deification of the state, unpacking its mostly repressed theological dimension.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Content
Introduction 1
1. Staying with the Violence 13
Divine Violence-A Trailer, 13 * A Brief Note on Counting and Explaining
Away, 21 * Violence, as It Is Unfolding: A Phenomenological Sketch, 24 *
Literal Reading and the Biblical Language of Violence, 36
2. Theocracy: The Persistence of an Ancient Lacuna 45
Theocracy, with and beyond Flavius Josephus, 45 * The Blind Spot:
Three Contemporary Readings of Biblical Violence, 53 * On the
Attribution of Power and Authority, 74 * Kingship, Anarchy,
Theocracy, 79 * Hypothesis, Method, and Stakes, 86
3. The Rule of Disaster: Extinction, Genocides, and Other Calamities 96
Becoming Political, 96 * From Extinction to Genocide, 99 *
Beyond Destruction, 105 * Separation and Disaster, 113 *
Violence and Law, 124 * The Sovereign's Moment, 130 * Scouts
in the Land of the Giants: Three Theocratic Formations, 139
4. Holy Power: States of Exception, Targeted Killings, and the Logic of Substitution 145
Holiness, 145 * Rebellions in the Wilderness, 160 * Substitution
and Containment, 178
5. The Time of the Covenant and the Temporalization of Violence 193
The Experimental Setting: Recalling Violence and Regulating It, 196 *
The Covenant and the Curses, 204 * The Weight of the Present, 214 *
The Subjects' Trap, or the People's Irony, 222 * A Midianite Utopia, 230
Afterword: The Pentateuchal State, and Ours 241
Notes 257
Works Cited 317
Index 335
System requirements
File format: PDF
Copy-Protection: Adobe-DRM (Digital Rights Management)
System requirements:
- Computer (Windows; MacOS X; Linux): Install the free reader Adobe Digital Editions prior to download (see eBook Help).
- Tablet/smartphone (Android; iOS): Install the free app Adobe Digital Editions or the app PocketBook before downloading (see eBook Help).
- E-reader: Bookeen, Kobo, Pocketbook, Sony, Tolino and many more (only limited: Kindle).
The file format PDF always displays a book page identically on any hardware. This makes PDF suitable for complex layouts such as those used in textbooks and reference books (images, tables, columns, footnotes). Unfortunately, on the small screens of e-readers or smartphones, PDFs are rather annoying, requiring too much scrolling.
This eBook uses Adobe-DRM, a „hard” copy protection. If the necessary requirements are not met, unfortunately you will not be able to open the eBook. You will therefore need to prepare your reading hardware before downloading.
Please note: We strongly recommend that you authorise using your personal Adobe ID after installation of any reading software.
For more information, see our eBook Help page.