The Sovereign Human Being: Carl Schmitt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Responsible Decision-Making (T&T Clark Enquiries in Theological Ethics)

Sovereign is who decides; and who decides is responsible.The book develops these two arguments by comparing Carl Schmitt's and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theories of sovereignty.Carl Schmitt was an influential jurist of Nazi Germany.Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran priest hanged for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.In many ways, the two men could not be more different.But they both struggled with the question of how to maintain order and how to prevent violence at times of crisis.In this considered work, Jeutner brings these two thinkers into careful dialogue.They both agreed that order is established not by appealing to existing norms or general principles but by an individual's sovereign decision.Ascribing sovereignty to individuals communicates that they always have a choice and that they are always responsible for these choices.Thus, it is not just powerful individuals who have the choice to bring wars to an end or who can combat climate change.This exploratory wo