Paper Short Abstract:

Through a political theological understanding of 'immanent singularity,' I draw on the (mystical) divine as a disruptive force. Referring to Catholic spaces in MexicoDF and Detroit, I explore urban unpredictability, sovereign incision and their de-secularizing theopolitical forms.

Paper Abstract:

Technology is not a straightforward, one-way street dictated solely by our intentions, problem-solving endeavors, or intended applications. The accident and the unpredictable emphasize a multidirectional and recursive relationship inherent in the technology and the urban (Virilio and Ruby 1998). This intervention engages with Political Theology and the urban, particularly through what I have called 'immanent singularity' (Napolitano 2022). Focusing on immanent singularity as a ‘techne of reason’ that resonates with a mystical tradition of kenosis and 'self-emptying' helps us conceptualize the divine as a force of (urban) disruption rather than a matter of ethical, 'peaceful' discourse. This intervention invites a debate on an unknown and kenotic nature of urban spaces, drawing on theopolitical sovereignty 'from below' and its spaces of indecision, by referring to urban (Catholic) sanctuary spaces such as the Augustinian Church of La Soledad in Mexico City, and the phenomenon of Catholic Church ‘mass mob’ constituted by 'white' suburban devotees making a sacramental 'incision' into urban, black downtown Detroit. Through an Anthropological theopolitical lens, I focus on unpredictability, and sovereign incision that orient urban forms of both justice and injustice. The intervention further contributes to an ongoing de-secularization of our discipline, fostering a more capacious understanding of the political and sovereignty, in the relation between the human, the more-than-human, and the more-than-natural (Fernando 2022).