This book presents the first in-depth survey of Austrian-Jewish sociologist and philosopher Jacob Taubes (1923-87).

Born in Vienna, Taubes and his family fled to Switzerland in the 1930s to escape Nazism, and the philosopher later took up positions at schools in the US and in Berlin. Paradoxically, however, Taubes shared correspondence with Carl Schmitt, the infamous "crown jurist" and legal theorist of the Nazi regime. This book unpacks these paradoxes through deep analytical observation of Schmitt and Taubes' dialogues, and shows how Taubes deconstructed St. Paul's writings to reveal their more subversive and heterodox implications. These readings, which gave rise to the school of thought we now call political theology, have also proven foundational to the thought of contemporary thinkers such as Giogio Agamben, Slavoj Zizek and Alain Badiou.

Stimilli's incisive treatment of Taubes finally brings him to the attention of an even wider audience. This is essential reading for anyone researching political theology, 20th-century Jewish thought and the relationship between theology and philosophy today.