Mystical Post-anarchism

Lewis, Keith James

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to explore the theoretical response that a mystical approach to post-anarchism can provide to the problems of domination and control within the contemporary capitalist state. In doing this, it also seeks to find a way past some of the key problems with existing anarchist and non-anarchist responses to these problems. The main claim that I make is that, by reading the apophatic mysticism of Meister Eckhart and Marguerite Porete through a post-anarchist lens, it is possible to develop a mystical post-anarchist theopolitics that has the potential to counter the dominating effects of contemporary forms of political and economic sovereignty. I argue that it can do this by helping to undo the existing forms of subjectification and desire through which the contemporary capitalist state is reproduced, and by contributing to the creation of alternative, anarchistic political communities oriented around the production and proliferation of liberty and equality through the annihilation of subjectivity in divine love. In doing so, the mystical post-anarchism I argue for in this thesis advances on the existing academic literature by showing how mysticism can help overcome the implicit authoritarianism of existing anarchist approaches to political theology and (post)Marxist conceptualisations of revolution and reform in their reliance on transcendent sites of hierarchical power. At the same time, by locating the warrant for ethical and political action in a purely immanent conception of the divine, the mystical post-anarchism I argue for in this thesis also provides a much fuller elaboration of the anarchistic potential of the explicitly theological dimensions of mysticism than existing approaches to mystical anarchism. In doing so, it places mysticism at the forefront of contemporary anarchist and (post)revolutionary theory and points to the prefigurative, revolutionary potential of its further mobilisation and development.

Citation

Lewis, K. J. (2023). Mystical Post-anarchism. (Thesis). Keele University

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Jul 31, 2023
• Award Date: 2023-07