As a response to the recent resurgence of a “Schmittian-style faith in sovereignty,” Vatter argues for a “political theology without sovereignty,” through analysing the relationship between democracy and theological concepts in Divine Democracy. In this paper, I consider dimensions of the relationship between revelation, exception and political life that are less explored in Divine Democracy. I examine the concept of exception in the context of revelation and sovereignty, as this emerges in Carl Schmitt’s Political Theology and Karl Jasper’s writing on the relationship between truth, exception, and communication. I locate Schmitt’s and Jasper’s interests in the exception in their respective readings of Kierkegaard and explore the extent to which Schmitt and Jaspers align with Kierkegaard’s writing on the exception in his early, pseudonymous writing. The paper concludes to suggest that Kierkegaard provides a model for political engagement that disrupts totalising political structures, particularly as these might be rooted in claims to sovereignty aligned with states of exception, and makes room for marginal and marginalized voices. As such, Kierkegaard aligns with Vatter’s project of arguing for political theology without sovereignty.
