{"product_id":"the-kings-two-bodies-a-study-in-medieval-political-theology","title":"The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 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 Kings Two Bodies  Kantorowicz traces the historical problem posed by the \"Kings 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 kings natural body has physical attributes  suffers  and dies  naturally  as do all humans; but the kings 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 Kings 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 and  with such means  began to establish early forms of the nation-state.  Kantorowicz fled Nazi Germany in 1938  after refusing to sign a Nazi loyalty oath  and settled in the United States. While teaching at the University of California  Berkeley  he once again refused to sign an oath of allegiance  this one designed to identify Communist Party sympathizers. He was dismissed as a result of the controversy and moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton  where he remained for the rest of his life  and where he wrote The Kings Two Bodies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44968283799605,"sku":"ByrdShop_0691020183","price":37.82,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780691020181_4f1eeff2-8374-4cf2-9f3e-5945e099cb84.jpg?v=1770650781","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-kings-two-bodies-a-study-in-medieval-political-theology","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}