@article{ce84d93c-2b8c-4a45-8fe1-d33974929159,
  abstract     = {{<p>This essay examines how R. A. Markus and Erik Peterson conceptualize law and political authority. Both Catholic converts reject the Aristotelian view of the human being as fundamentally a political animal. Instead, they articulate an eschatological anthropology in which law and politics emerge from the Fall: necessary under present conditions yet ultimately ordered toward redemption. Markus, drawing on Augustine, distinguishes intrinsic forms of superiority, grounded in supererogatory love, from extrinsic political hierarchies, grounded in deontological obligation. Peterson, focusing on Paul, interprets Christ’s fulfillment of the law as a critique of the conception of the human as a political animal. The essay shows how Markus and Peterson deploy theology to denaturalize political subordination and relativize temporal authority. Theology thus enables a rational lament for conditions we habitually treat as necessary, while opening human life to a divine power capable of confronting death and the way mortality forces us to become fixated on command and security.</p>}},
  author       = {{Björk, Mårten}},
  issn         = {{1462-317X}},
  keywords     = {{Augustine; Erik Peterson; eschatology; law; political authority; R.A. Markus; theology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{665--686}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Political Theology}},
  title        = {{“Deliver me from my Necessities” : R. A. Markus and Erik Peterson on the End of Law}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462317X.2025.2608478}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/1462317X.2025.2608478}},
  volume       = {{27}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}