265 REPRINTS AVAILABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE PUBLISHERS PHOTOCOPYING PERMITTED BY LICENSE ONLY © BERG 2011 PRINTED IN THE UK CULTURAL POLITICS VOLUME 7, ISSUE 2 PP 265–288 CULTURAL POLITICS DOI: 10.2752/175174311X12971799876022 THE POLITICS OF TRANSCENDENCE HARALD WYDRA ABSTRACT Modern politics dogmatically separates politics from religion, the state from promises of salvation. This article makes a case for the fundamentally political nature of transcendence. It argues that the changing relationships between authority and salvation depend on culturally crafted engagements of the spiritual and the temporal. In a first part, I examine four key configurations of the political in the history of the West, which can be grasped as extraordinary form of “absolute” politics. From the adoption of Christianity by Constantine, the Gregorian reform, Luther’s Reformation, and the French Revolution, secular forms of territorial power are grounded in an engagement between the spiritual and the temporal. In a second part, I show how ultimate ends influenced the emergence of secular forms of power. Although they lack tangible immediate effects and appear impracticable, ultimate ends shaped HARALD WYDRA IS A FELLOW OF ST CATHARINE’S COLLEGE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE WHERE HE HAS TAUGHT POLITICS SINCE 2003. HE HAS HELD VISITING FELLOWSHIPS AT THE ÉCOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES IN PARIS AND THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN CANBERRA AS WELL AS A VISITING PROFESSORSHIP AT THE UNIVERSITÉ PARIS OUEST NANTERRE LA DÉFENSE. HE IS A FOUNDING EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY. HIS MOST RECENT BOOKS ARE COMMUNISM AND THE EMERGENCE OF DEMOCRACY (CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2007) AND, AS CO-EDITOR, DEMOCRACY AND MYTH IN RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE (ROUTLEDGE, 2008).