5 - Consociational Politics

Summary

Covenantal accounts of political life have provoked challenges not only from early modern detractors, but late modern ones as well. While the former often employed explicitly theological terms in their polemics, as we saw in the previous chapter, many late modern theorists have expressed puzzlement over the persistence of theological language in early modern covenantal thought. Early-modern political doctrines of consent, social contract, and popular sovereignty were supposed to silence the theologians. Late modern political historians have also continued to puzzle over the place of theological commitments in early modern politics. Was the silencing of the theologians (Gentili’s infamous silete theologi) actually effective? And if not, why not?