Author: LIN Yihui, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy, Fu Jen Catholic University.
Abstract:
In Pilate and Jesus, Giorgio Agamben delves into the details of the trial of Jesus, which he regards as one of the key moments of human history: a paradoxical process that is both within and without Roman law, at a decisive point where the temporal and the eternal confront each other. This essay seeks to address this zone of undecidability wherein Pilate, the prefect of Judea who must judge the “king of the Jews”, does not pronounce a sentence, while Jesus, the one who does not judge but is “handed over” to the judgment of an earthly kingdom, testifies in vain to the truth of his kingdom that is not from here. Given Agamben`s emphasis on the historicity of Pilate instead of Pilate’s theological significance in the divine economy of salvation, this essay also examines the relation between Agamben`s interpretation of the historical event of the trial and Carl Schmitt`s conception of history in light of the role of katechon, and thus suggests that the confrontation of Pilate and Jesus not only resembles the tension between sovereignty and homo sacer but also reveals the potentiality to break its logic in the unresolved krisis.
Keywords:
Agamben, Pilate and Jesus, krisis, history, salvation
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