Description

This talk will explore presuppositions of international order that originate in medieval theology. In doing so, it examines rival conceptions of order—immanent and imposed—that emerged out of a medieval dispute about the nature of God and the extent of his power. Particular emphasis will be placed on the transition from medieval to modern and the claim that continuity describes this transition as much as the more familiar discourse of change. The assimilation of medieval theological ideas into modern political and legal thought is illustrated in the context of Martin Luther, Hugo Grotius, and Thomas Hobbes. This provides the basis of an unacknowledged theological inheritance that underpins modern theories of international order. The language of system and society, as well as anarchy, balance of power, contractual international law, and constitutionalism, reflects the intellectual commitments of a particular tradition of medieval theology. This theological inheritance leads to a significant tension in contemporary international thought. An international order grounded in nothing more than human decision is precariously exposed to the whims of capricious power.