The Theopolitics of the Migrant: Toward a Coalitional and Comparative Political Theology

Migration challenges democracies characterized by the assumption that the citizens who are affected by the law are also its authors and that the citizens who are its authors are also affected by the law. Taking the “hijab affair” in France as a point of departure, this chapter aims to confront the constitution of the law in decisionist political theology and dialectical political theology with the figure of the migrant. The chapter argues that the migrant can be characterized as a theopolitical figure that resists the separation of citizen and noncitizen implied in the concept of strong and stable state sovereignty. Drawing on Seyla Benhabib’s account of democratic iterations, the chapter sketches the contours of a coalitional and comparative political theology in order to provide a theological reflection and a theological rationale for the theopolitics of the migrant already practiced across Europe.