In this follow-up to "The Kingdom and the Glory" and "The Highest Poverty," Agam
ben investigates the roots of our moral concept of duty in the theory and practi
ce of Christian liturgy. Beginning with the New Testament and working through to
late scholasticism and modern papal encyclicals, Agamben traces the Church's at
tempts to repeat Christ's unrepeatable sacrifice. Crucial here is the paradoxica
l figure of the priest, who becomes more and more a pure instrument of God's pow
er, so that his own motives and character are entirely indifferent as long as he
carries out his priestly duties. In modernity, Agamben argues, the Christian pr
iest has become the model ethical subject. We see this above all in Kantian ethi
cs.
