Gustav Landauer's Anarcho-Mysticism and the Critique of Political Theology

This paper explores the anarcho-mystical thought of Gustav Landauer as a critical response to Schmitt's sovereign-centric political theology. It is argued that Landauer's thought effects a radical displacement of the concept of state sovereignty through autonomous forms of community, subjectivity and affinity. Central here, I argue, is his notion of mystical withdrawal and spiritual self-transformation. I develop some parallels here with recent interventions in Italian (im)political thought in which the representative capacity of sovereignty is called into question. I conclude by suggesting that anarcho-mysticism, as a critical engagement with political theology, not only broadens out this category, but offers a way of interpreting new forms of activism and dissent.