Toward a Planetary Political Theology of the Inception: Diffracting Spacetime Through Western Relationalism, Zhang Zai, and Kim Ji-ha

Reflecting Weimar-era crises, this study addresses contemporary democratic and technological divisions by proposing an alternative spatiotemporal foundation. It constructs a dialogue between Walter Benjamin’s messianic critique, Carl Schmitt’s sovereign decisionism, and Karen Barad’s quantum ontology. While Schmitt reframed Benjamin’s law-breaking ‘divine violence’ (1921) into the ‘sovereign exception’, Baraddeconstructs this division. Integrating quantum physics into political theology, her ‘spacetimemattering’ collapses the Newtonian empty container-space used to justify sovereign enclosures. This study contrasts Lineage A (Schmitt–Girard–Thiel), relying on static spatial partitions, with Lineage B (Butler–Barad–Keller), viewing spacetime as a relational flow. This relational ontology resonates with East Asian cosmologies, specifically Zhang Zai’s Taeheo (Great Void) and Kim Ji-ha’s Huin-geuneul (Pale Shade). This cross-cultural diffraction demonstrates that the subaltern alliance of Benjamin’s ‘hunchback’ and Kim’s ‘Koraebi (tail-enders)’ exemplifies those marginalized by sovereign divisions. By formulating a relational ontology for these figures, this study provides the essential ‘priming water’ for nonhuman salvation, weaving an integrative knot of violence critique, marginalized redemption, and planetary coexistence.