Abstract

In The Force of Nonviolence, Judith Butler argues that Walter Benjamin’s concept of divine violence can be related to a technique of nonviolent civil government. To make the argument, Butler relies on Benjamin’s philosophy of translation. This article reviews Benjamin’s concept of divine violence as presented in “Toward the Critique of Violence” in order to show that divine violence is violence. While some forms of nonviolence identified by Butler share common traits with Benjamin’s divine violence in the fact that they may have real force and be “pure means,” nevertheless, the means of Benjamin’s divine violence are violent ones. This article argues that conceiving divine violence as violence is necessary to a rigorous understanding of violence and nonviolence, especially in their revolutionary forms. Appeal is made to recent works by Avram Alpert, Idris Robinson, and Billie Murray who argue against suppressing the study of violence in liberation movements.