Humanity has spent centuries awaiting kingdoms that have never arrived, while submitting to those that have.
In No Kingdom Comes, Fíona Vivienne undertakes an uncompromising philosophical confrontation with Christianity, the historical machinery of empire, and the persistence of sacred authority long after its theological foundations have been abandoned.
Beginning with the extraordinary human capacity to manufacture authority and then recognize its inventions as possessing a right to command, the book investigates the cultivation of obedience, the political uses of innocence, and the conversion of living relationships into claims of rightful jurisdiction. From the promises of divine sovereignty to contemporary Christian nationalism, it examines how institutions acquire authority over human existence, and how individuals participate in reproducing the very arrangements that govern them.
Engaging La Boétie, Stirner, Dora Marsden, Nietzsche, Durkheim, Foucault, Judith Butler, Saba Mahmood, John Stuart Mill, and others, Vivienne presses beyond established accounts of voluntary servitude, the formation of desire, and individual freedom. What responsibility remains when obedience is sincerely desired? Does the history that forms an individual acquire any legitimate claim upon her allegiance? And what becomes of egoïsme when the sovereign self is no longer available as its guarantee?
Written from a distinctly female, embodied, egoist anarchist perspective, No Kingdom Comes also confronts the claims made upon sexuality, maternity, care, and dependence. These relationships may entail profound attachments and responsibilities without conferring rightful jurisdiction over the lives they help shape.
At the heart of the work lies a further philosophical difficulty: judgment without jurisdiction. The individual may condemn obedience without claiming the right to govern the obedient. Her refusal need not become a universal commandment, nor must freedom become another sacred obligation.
Across seven movements, No Kingdom Comes extends the philosophical and literary world of Dancing in the Backwoods, confronting the possibility that rebellion itself may reproduce the sovereign claims it seeks to destroy.
Format: Hardcover
Length: 480 pages
Series: Dancing in the Backwoods, Book VI
Author: Fíona Vivienne
Availability: Pre-order
Shipping begins November 2026.
Humanity has spent centuries awaiting kingdoms that have never arrived, while submitting to those that have.
In No Kingdom Comes, Fíona Vivienne undertakes an uncompromising philosophical confrontation with Christianity, the historical machinery of empire, and the persistence of sacred authority long after its theological foundations have been abandoned.
Beginning with the extraordinary human capacity to manufacture authority and then recognize its inventions as possessing a right to command, the book investigates the cultivation of obedience, the political uses of innocence, and the conversion of living relationships into claims of rightful jurisdiction. From the promises of divine sovereignty to contemporary Christian nationalism, it examines how institutions acquire authority over human existence, and how individuals participate in reproducing the very arrangements that govern them.
Engaging La Boétie, Stirner, Dora Marsden, Nietzsche, Durkheim, Foucault, Judith Butler, Saba Mahmood, John Stuart Mill, and others, Vivienne presses beyond established accounts of voluntary servitude, the formation of desire, and individual freedom. What responsibility remains when obedience is sincerely desired? Does the history that forms an individual acquire any legitimate claim upon her allegiance? And what becomes of egoïsme when the sovereign self is no longer available as its guarantee?
Written from a distinctly female, embodied, egoist anarchist perspective, No Kingdom Comes also confronts the claims made upon sexuality, maternity, care, and dependence. These relationships may entail profound attachments and responsibilities without conferring rightful jurisdiction over the lives they help shape.
At the heart of the work lies a further philosophical difficulty: judgment without jurisdiction. The individual may condemn obedience without claiming the right to govern the obedient. Her refusal need not become a universal commandment, nor must freedom become another sacred obligation.
Across seven movements, No Kingdom Comes extends the philosophical and literary world of Dancing in the Backwoods, confronting the possibility that rebellion itself may reproduce the sovereign claims it seeks to destroy.
Format: Hardcover
Length: 480 pages
Series: Dancing in the Backwoods, Book VI
Author: Fíona Vivienne
Availability: Pre-order
Shipping begins November 2026.
