Can I read The King's Two Bodies : a Study in Mediaeval Political Theology on EtoBox?

The King's Two Bodies : a Study in Mediaeval Political Theology by Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz; American Council of Learned Societies is a history book available to read on EtoBox.

What is The King's Two Bodies : a Study in Mediaeval Political Theology about?

In 1957 Ernst Kantorowicz published a book that would be the guide for generations of scholars through the arcane mysteries of medieval political theology. In The King's Two Bodies, Kantorowicz traces the historical problem posed by the "King's two bodies"--the body politic and the body natural--back to the Middle Ages and demonstrates, by placing the concept in its proper setting of medieval thought and political theory, how the early-modern Western monarchies gradually began to develop a "political theology." The king's natural body has physical attributes, suffers, and dies, naturally, as do all humans; but the king's other body, the spiritual body, transcends the earthly and serves as a symbol of his office as majesty with the divine right to rule. The notion of the two bodies allowed for the continuity of monarchy even when the monarch died, as summed up in the formulation "The king is dead. Long live the king." Bringing together liturgical works, images, and polemical material, The King's Two Bodies explores the long Christian past behind this "political theology." It provides a subtle history of how commonwealths developed symbolic means for establishing their sovereignty an

Who reads The King's Two Bodies : a Study in Mediaeval Political Theology?

Author

Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz; American Council of Learned Societies

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published

1957

Language

EN

ISBN

9780691020181

Category

history

Subjects

Political Science, Social Science, Fiction

Rating

4.26 / 5 (218 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14