NATURA MESSIANICA E FELICITÀ. Su alcuni elementi kantiani nel Frammento teologico-politico di Walter Benjamin

The first questions to arise in the Theological-political Fragment1 are, “Who is the Messiah, and what relation does the profane order have with the Messianic order?” To these we might add others: In what sense can there be a Messianic nature? What does Benjamin mean by “profane order”? In what way can “the profane order of the profane favor the advent of the Messianic kingdom”, and how is it that “striving […] [toward the eternal and total caducity of nature] is the task of global politics”?2 My intention is to demonstrate how the profane order, characterized by an internal and total caducity (“the rhythm of Messianic nature”),3 interprets and reflects, in this context, the Kantian conception of humankind in the eternally contingent succession of its generations (cf. “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim”) as subject of history and politics, as it proceeds toward the realization, through institutions, of the idea of right as the perfect republic. In Benjamin, the generations follow the rhythm of Messianic nature, which is happiness conceived also as fortune; that contingent dimension, linked to the needs of humankind, which politics and history must also take into account.