An Emperor Robed in Christian Theology

Although Smolin argues that 4th century theology became the ground for political discussion and theory, he is not primarily arguing for the formation of a specific ”political theology” in the vein of Kantorowicz’s The King’s Two Bodies. For Kantorowicz, late mediæval Christian beliefs served as the foundational principles that shaped the political state, literally embodied in the monarch’s body and the body politic—an idea of development which proceeds from the theological to the political. Smolin argues instead that, in the 4th century, the political migrated to the theological: arguing the nature of Christ’s kingship over creation might become a way to theorise about the nature of a king’s lordship over his realm; more simplistically, it might be advanced as a divine model worthy of emulation by earthly kings; or, it might subsume earthly kingship under it, as a lesser form of the greater kingship sanctified by Christ, with such other shared qualities as might be inferred.