The Necessity of Politics: An Essay on the Representative Idea in the Church and Modern Europe (Essays in Order)

"The Necessity of Politics" is the first English translation of Carl Schmitt's 1923 essay Römischer Katholizismus und politische Form to appear in print. The translation, unattributed, was published in 1931 by Sheed & Ward as a part of their Essays in Order series with a substantial introduction written by Christopher Dawson. Now considered by scholars to be "so inaccurate" as to be "worse than useless" because it "distorts Schmitt's meaning," it may still be of some historical interest to readers.