The deaths of Moses: The death penalty and the division of sovereignty
Derrida insists that any effort to think theological-political power "in its possibility" must begin with the death penalty. In this paper, I revisit the death of Moses Paul, "an Indian," executed in New Haven in 1772 for the murder of Moses Cook, a white man. The Mohegan ministe...
| Published in: | Critical research on religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
[2018]
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| In: |
Critical research on religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 6, Issue: 2, Pages: 168-183 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Derrida, Jacques 1930-2004
/ Death penalty
/ Sovereign action
B Occom, Samson 1723-1792 / Standrede / USA / Indians / Murder / Settler / Whites / Death penalty / Sovereign action |
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy KBQ North America ZC Politics in general |
| Further subjects: | B
Indigenous sovereignty
B Samson Occom B death penalty B Derrida B Paul |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | Derrida insists that any effort to think theological-political power "in its possibility" must begin with the death penalty. In this paper, I revisit the death of Moses Paul, "an Indian," executed in New Haven in 1772 for the murder of Moses Cook, a white man. The Mohegan minister Samson Occom delivered Paul's execution sermon and accompanied him to the gallows. Revised, Occom's sermon was one of the first works published by a Native American author in English. Occom suggests there can be a theological-political power that signals itself not by decreeing the death penalty, but by opposing it. Hence sovereignty can be thought, with and against Derrida, as the theologico-political power to restore life. By opposing death to grace, moreover, Occom achieves a division of sovereignties, creating an opening for Indigenous nations within the scaffolding of the settler state. Working in collaboration, then, Occom and Paul produce a political theology. |
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| ISSN: | 2050-3040 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/2050303218774894 |