Schmitt left obscure exactly what theological status the Gospels held for him

Evidence

After the discussion that followed the delivery of this chapter in an earlier lecture version, Derrida noted that there remains room to ask what status the Gospels had for Schmitt. Is it the same theological status that Schmitt attributed, for example, to dogma, theological concepts, and religious anthropology? Are the Gospels a part of Christianity as a juridical theory? As attentive as he is to the “sociology of concepts” and to the conflictual history of language, of tradition, and of texts, one could have expected Schmitt to clarifY his views on the place and role of the Gospels. What sustains the question is perhaps the “equivocal character” of the expression “theologico-political,” as noted by Jean-Franc,:ois Courtine, as well as the possibility of reading the theologico-political as including in a general manner “the mutual implications of the sacred and the social,” the possibility of reading Schmitt as opposing any conception that would make of religion a private matter (Courtine, ”A propos du ‘probleme theologico-politique,”’ esp. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 964