The complex relationship between the post-secular and the theological turn in philosophy and political theology is the backdrop that inspired the main theme of in this book: to what extent the centrality of theological discourse in originating meanings, symbols and realities has been, and continues to be, relevant in shaping instituted practices in the political realm.

This relevance has historically been shown in the conceptual transfers and mutual borrowings of terms and meanings from one field to another: from the theological to the political and vice versa. Through this hybridisation of theological and political vocabulary, it is shown that some divine traces could be considered embedded in institutionalised political practices. Throughout the various chapters, we have tried to discover the divine marks, the theological signatures or, as we have characterised them here, the figures of the divine embedded in certain instituted political practices. These figures speak of God. In a way, they reveal God by saying something about Him or by representing Him. The five theopolitical figures examined in this book are other names of God found in the political realm. Following the tradition of the apophatic theology, they name God in a negative and symbolic way: in particular, He is the written revelation (scripture); He is the to come (prophecy); He is truthful and faithful (oath); He is mercy and forgiving (charisma); and He is the absolute host (hospitality). These figures refer to symbolic meanings which happen as historical events representing the divine in a negative way. In fact, these theopolitical figures appear in the form of a paradox: while being the necessary conditions for the constitution of any possible community, they always remain unconditional and impossible in their absolute happening.

Hence, this book is intended to be a contribution to the theological turn in political philosophy. It reinscribes contemporary political concepts and experiences in the ‘theological locus’ from which they supposedly come and at the same time looks for alternative semantic derivations for the political theory and practice. The discursive trajectory of the book has engaged with the discussions of different continental philosophers of the twentieth century, including Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Louis Chrétien, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Jean-Luc Nancy, John Caputo, Jean-Luc Marion and Vladimir Jankélévitch among others.