Bossuet: Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture
Bossuet: Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture

Author: Jacques Bénigne Bossuet

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9780521368070

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This 1991 book was the first ever English rendition of the classic statement of divine right absolutism, published in 1707. Jacques-Benigne Bossuet argues in the Politics that a general society of the entire human race, governed by Christian charity, has given way (after the Fall) to the necessity of politcs, law, and absolute hereditary monarchy. That monarchy - seen as natural, universal and divinely ordained (beginning with David and Solomon) is defended in the first half of the book. The last part, added soon before Bossuet's death, goes on to take up the rights of the Church, the distinction between absolutism and arbitrariness, and causes of just war. Patrick Riley has provided full supporting materials including a chronology, guide to further reading, and a lucid introduction placing Bossuet in his historical and intellectual context.

The Divine Right of Kings
The Divine Right of Kings

Author: John Neville Figgis

Publisher: CUP Archive

Published: 1914

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13:

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"Figgis sets his analysis in Europe beginning from the early Middle Ages, with how nobles would often elect fellows to act as king (lord of lords), and who were bound to the customary laws of the land. Through a series of theocratic power struggles originating in the Holy Roman Empire, and the transformation of being a king of a people to being king over a land, and the eventual resolution of those power struggles (in England), Figgis gives a thorough account of the development of Divine Right as it came to be stated by James VI. You will find a thoroughly researched work which traces step-by-step the evolution of DROK, taking the time to demonstrate the nuances of moral laws and adherence to them which are counterintuitive to modern interpretations of pre-modern ideas (such as resisting a king who has contradicted God's law, in order to serve that king), and its different expression and application by Catholics, Protestants and Presbyterians. The in-depth account of DROK will give you an excellent picture of the historical and political landscape occurring right at the birth of humanity into modernity. The book is a vital companion to anyone studying ideas of sovereignty, power, political doctrines, theocracy, or the events and ideas which led up to the execution of Charles I; referencing Marsilius of Padua, Jean Bodin, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Likewise, Figgis' work is vital for wider reference towards other philosophical works which were themselves discussing DROK (such as Hegel's Philosophy of Right), or of political responses to ideas of sovereignty, such as the school of Karl Marx (Including Giovanni Gentile, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler); utilitarians; or the post-modernists (Agamben) and post-structuralists (Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida)" --Amazon.com

Philosophical Foundations of Leadership
Philosophical Foundations of Leadership

Author: David Cawthorn

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-28

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1351324586

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The nature of leadership and the human qualities that promote or inhibit it have a long history in Western thought and remain a central concern in modern societies. Crises in leadership may arise from either human failings or social complexities that defeat or reject those most qualified to lead. While most contemporary political or social commentators on such crises tend to focus on external circumstances, David Cawthon examines classical thinkers from Plato to Nietzsche to offer a historical and philosophical perspective on the intrinsic qualities of leadership and how these qualities are coded into the souls of some, but not of others.

Sovereignty & the Responsibility to Protect
Sovereignty & the Responsibility to Protect

Author: Luke Glanville

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-12-20

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 022607708X

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In 2011, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1973, authorizing its member states to take measures to protect Libyan civilians from Muammar Gadhafi’s forces. In invoking the “responsibility to protect,” the resolution draws on the principle that sovereign states are responsible and accountable to the international community for the protection of their populations and that the international community can act to protect populations when national authorities fail to do so. The idea that sovereignty includes the responsibility to protect is often seen as a departure from the classic definition, but it actually has deep historical roots. In Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect, Luke Glanville argues that this responsibility extends back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that states have since been accountable for this responsibility to God, the people, and the international community. Over time, the right to national self-governance came to take priority over the protection of individual liberties, but the noninterventionist understanding of sovereignty was only firmly established in the twentieth century, and it remained for only a few decades before it was challenged by renewed claims that sovereigns are responsible for protection. Glanville traces the relationship between sovereignty and responsibility from the early modern period to the present day, and offers a new history with profound implications for the present.

Sacral Kingship Between Disenchantment and Re-enchantment
Sacral Kingship Between Disenchantment and Re-enchantment

Author: Ronald G. Asch

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2014-07-01

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1782383573

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France and England are often seen as monarchies standing at opposite ends of the spectrum of seventeenth-century European political culture. On the one hand the Bourbon monarchy took the high road to absolutism, while on the other the Stuarts never quite recovered from the diminution of their royal authority following the regicide of Charles I in 1649. However, both monarchies shared a common medieval heritage of sacral kingship, and their histories remained deeply entangled throughout the century. This study focuses on the interaction between ideas of monarchy and images of power in the two countries between the execution of Mary Queen of Scots and the Glorious Revolution. It demonstrates that even in periods when politics were seemingly secularized, as in France at the end of the Wars of Religion, and in latter seventeenth- century England, the appeal to religious images and values still lent legitimacy to royal authority by emphasizing the sacral aura or providential role which church and religion conferred on monarchs.

Leviathan
Leviathan

Author: Thomas Hobbes

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-10-03

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 048612214X

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Written during a moment in English history when the political and social structures were in flux and open to interpretation, Leviathan played an essential role in the development of the modern world.