Volume 1 issue 1 April 2013
From Theirs to Modernity: The Concept of State – Middle Age Interpretations from the 20th Century and Beyond
Gerard LeCain
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The concept of State has been crafted both in a
sequential linear fashion as well as consecutively and concurrently by a
multitude of actors, eras and impetuses. It is for this reason that it has been
such an elusive and intangible idea throughout time, offering itself for mere
moments, but ultimately presenting itself as nothing more than an enigma. From
Theirs to Modernity attempts to find reason in the noise of the Middle Ages, to
identify elements of transition and flux that took such concepts as
representation, jurisprudence, religious politics and governance to a greater
and loftier position within society.
The article intentionally focuses on the work of Gaines Post, Harold J Berman and Ernst Kantorowicz and extrapolates elements of medieval history, transposing them into the theories of these authors with the intention of discussing what might be considered factors that are influential in the formation of what we might regard as the State. The aim of the article is to create a heterogeneous construct that is composed of a combination of historical events, twentieth and twenty-first century commentary, and a systematic study of these ingredients, projected onto the Middle Ages through to modernity without the restrictions of chronology. |