Economic Theology, Governance and Neoliberalism: Lessons of the Kingdom and the Glory

The aim of this paper is to examine Agamben’s engagement with economic theology in order to underscore its relevance for the critique of contemporary neoliberal politics. In the first part, I offer a summary of the central arguments of The Kingdom and the Glory. In particular, I focus on both the treatment of the notion of oikonomia in the early Christian discussions on the divine trinity and its relation to the providential paradigm of government. I then show how this genealogy of oikonomia is useful for a political analysis of the present. In doing so, I respond to some of the criticisms leveled against Agamben’s The Kingdom and the Glory by Alberto Toscano. Finally, I will conclude by showing how Agamben’s work is of particular importance for the study of neoliberal political rationality.