Medieval theology theorized enemy-love while never asking who the enemy actually is

Evidence

If one turns to the Middle Ages, however, what becomes striking is never the absence of the commandment. To mention but a few major examples, “Love your enemies” is discussed at length by Augustine in De doctrina Christiana and by Aquinas in the Summa theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles. It is “perhaps the most frequently cited Scriptural reference in Francis [of Assisi]‘s Opuscula” (Mastnak, Crusading Peace, 193). What remains either implicit or simply unthought in this case is not that there are enemies and that they should be loved-even if this is something that might reveal itself impossible-but the meaning of the word “enemy.” It is as if the “concrete” question of who the enemy is cannot be addressed in properly theological (one might say, theoretical and abstract) discussions. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 877

Categorization

• XREF: This is the core genealogical move of the whole book — the abstract category ‘enemy’ conceals the concrete question of who counts as one, which Chapter 5 fills with Muslims.