Abstract
The essay explores the distinctive relationship between sacred (Christian) temporality and (Western) ‘hermeneutics of the state’, through a focus upon the founding texts of the Civilian legal tradition: the sixth-century CE Digest, Code and Institutes. Part 1 analyses the Emperor Justinian’s claim that these law-books were to be ‘valid for all eternity’ through a series of close textual readings of the same law-books’ prefatory constitutions. Part 2 contextualises Justinian’s lawyerly invocation of ‘eternity’ within contemporary Eastern Christological disputes, including a set of theological debates, orchestrated by Justinian himself, that took place at the same time (and location) as his law-books were being compiled. Part 3 concludes by arguing that the ‘timeless’, rational, universal, authority of the Civilian Legal tradition – as explored in the chapter by Ryan – was in fact underpinned by a specific Eastern (‘Byzantine’) sacred temporality.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Political thought, time, and history |
| Editors | John Robertson |
| Place of Publication | Cambridge |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Chapter | 1 |
| Pages | 36-53 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781009289399 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781009289368 , 9781009289344 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Aug 2023 |
Keywords
- Corpus Iuris Civilis
- Civilian legal tradition
- Justinian
- Eternity
- Sacred time
- Incarnation