Describes the secularization of mystical thought as it transforms into nihilism in the modern period.

Redoubling and the Roots of Metaphysics in the West is a study of how positive metaphysical abstractions are not only central to Western Philosophy, but to its core political mythologies as well. By creating a "meta" position through such abstract redoublings of a concept, absolute positions are routinely constructed (e.g., "God of gods," "concept of the concept"). To counter such claims to absolutism, there arise historically in both philosophy and theology a series of negative redoublings (e.g., "negation of negation") that seek to undermine the sovereign claims of positive redoublings in order to limit their expansion and dominance. By focusing specifically on how nihilism became a modern instance of earlier apophatic mystical forms of negation, Colby Dickinson shows how the negative redoublings of apophatic, nihilistic thought are actually inherently connected to any positive, political project of redoubling. By doing so, Dickinson argues for a renewed attentiveness to how conceptual abstractions—a staple part of any philosophy or theology—are formed theoretically, as well as how they function politically.