Wer ist heute Katechon? A Platonic Lecture of Paul’s 2 Thessalonicians 2,1-12

Abstract

Various interpretations of the notion of κατέχον/κατέχων have been proposed over some two thousand years of Christian thinking, but it seems quite impossible to satisfy all the conditions in order to identify this mysterious entity that withholds the forces of evil and restrains the Son of Anarchy. I shall first proceed in a critical presentation of the well-known solutions presented by the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church, as well as by modern and contemporary thinkers, from Carl Schmitt to Massimo Cacciari. Then I shall introduce the hypothesis of a Platonic tradition hiding behind this passage. As Rudolf Bultmann puts it, there must be a specific tradition behind this passage ignored up to day, and that he fails to uncover. Can Platonic philosophical terms be the horizon of the comprehension of this early Paulinian letter? I shall, at last, present my own hypothesis of a new interpretation and explain why this solution meets all formal and substantial conditions and criteria of such identification.