This article recovers the original meaning of the concept of political theology or civil theology. Since the publication of Schmitt's Political Theology (1922), scholars have disagreed on this concept's meaning, legitimacy, and usefulness but generally assume that political theology presupposes divine revelation. This article challenges this assumption by returning to Augustine's critique of Varro's civil theology. For Varro, civil theology is a rational reinterpretation of the Roman civil religion. However, the Roman elite did not claim their religion was divinely revealed but rather it was a matter of public utility and human convention. Furthermore, Augustine argues that Varro's civil theology is not opposed to natural theology but is intimately intermingled with it. This original meaning sheds light on why modern philosophers (Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Spinoza) supported the idea of civil religion and why contemporary political thinkers (Kelsen, Schmitt, and Negri) engaged in political theological arguments to support their distinct political ideologies.
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