The Church and the Kingdom by Giorgio Agamben
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Although very short, Agamben realizes the difference between the church and the kingdom can be found within the Catholic church’s ordination of time. Time here, is used to project a position of sacred reverence as a political tool, rather than one utilized to realize the potential spiritual awakening NOW. For Agamben, the projected position of the messiah is not a good thing because it never arrives. This presents a problem even for the church today, as a worldly institution. Obviously Agamben charges the church with not exercising their full role as they see it, and instead letting us dwell in a kind of non-time time, in perpetual waiting.
In a way this book can be read as a call to spiritual awakening, although Agamben does not necessarily go that far.
