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Conjuring the Body Politic From the Corpus Mysticum: The Post-Independent Pursuit of Public Opinion in Mexico, 1821-1854

1999; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 55; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1007650

1533-6247

Brian Connaughton,

Historical Studies in Latin America

Political theory, consensus and participation have often had deeply religious motivations and inspirations driving them. And however peculiar to theology the concept of corpus mysticum may seem to us today, it has often been used in association with politics. In the late Middle Ages, the notions of political office as against personalism, continuity of sovereignty in spite of the unexpected and politically perilous deaths of monarchs, unity over factionalism, the relationship between authority and the law, and that between authority and the people, were persuasively addressed through this religious metaphor.