Criticism of heaven : on Marxism and theology PDF
Preview Criticism of heaven : on Marxism and theology
Criticism of Heaven BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd i 6/19/2007 10:16:34 AM Historical Materialism Book Series Editorial Board Paul Blackledge, Leeds – Sébastien Budgen, Paris Michael Krätke, Amsterdam – Stathis Kouvelakis, London – Marcel van der Linden, Amsterdam China Miéville, London – Paul Reynolds, Lancashire Peter Thomas, Amsterdam VOLUME 18 BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd ii 6/19/2007 10:16:36 AM Criticism of Heaven On Marxism and Theology By Roland Boer LEIDEN • BOSTON 2007 BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd iii 6/19/2007 10:16:36 AM This book is printed on acid-free paper. ISSN 1570-1522 ISBN 978 90 04 16111 5 Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd iv 6/19/2007 10:16:36 AM For Ken Surin BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd v 6/19/2007 10:16:37 AM BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd vi 6/19/2007 10:16:37 AM Contents Preface ............................................................................................................. xi Introduction ................................................................................................... xv Chapter One Bloch’s Detective Work .................................................... 1 Argument and advocacy ........................................................................... 4 From the Bible to sentence production, and back again ...................... 7 Method: class con(cid:2) ict as a hermeneutical key ....................................... 14 Vagaries of writing ................................................................................ 14 Oral and written texts ............................................................................ 15 Forces of redaction ................................................................................. 17 Biblical criticism ..................................................................................... 18 The politics of interpretation ................................................................ 20 The critique of myth .................................................................................. 26 Exegesis ....................................................................................................... 36 The Hebrew Bible ................................................................................... 37 New Testament ....................................................................................... 45 The return to theology ............................................................................... 47 Atheism ................................................................................................... 48 Teleology ................................................................................................. 50 Transcendence ........................................................................................ 51 Faith, hope, sin and death ..................................................................... 52 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 55 Chapter Two Benjamin’s Perpetuation of Biblical Myth .................. 57 Trauerspiel .................................................................................................... 63 Demons, allegory and (cid:2) esh (allegorical level) ................................... 65 Fall and Eschaton (moral and anagogic levels) ................................. 67 Passagenarbeit .............................................................................................. 70 Method: collector as allegorist ............................................................. 70 BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd vii 6/19/2007 10:16:37 AM viii • Contents Passages ................................................................................................... 72 The double allegory of Marxism and theology ................................. 74 Myth and history ........................................................................................ 79 Appropriation of the maternal function ................................................. 82 Genesis ......................................................................................................... 86 Language ................................................................................................. 86 Ursprung .................................................................................................. 90 Salvation history [Heilsgeschichte]: the return of biblical myth ............ 96 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 103 Chapter Three The Ecclesiastical Eloquence of Louis Althusser ..... 107 Ecclesiastical form: theological writings ................................................. 109 From absent cause to philosophy of religion ......................................... 128 The logical necessity .............................................................................. 129 Elements of a materialist philosophy of religion ............................... 132 Ideology ............................................................................................... 133 Myth ..................................................................................................... 143 Conclusion: the terminus of (auto)biography? ...................................... 159 Chapter Four The Heresies of Henri Lefebvre ..................................... 163 Threshold .................................................................................................... 164 Exploration .................................................................................................. 169 Worship ....................................................................................................... 177 Archaeology ................................................................................................ 178 Heresies ....................................................................................................... 187 Blondel ..................................................................................................... 189 Joachim de Fiore and mysticism .......................................................... 192 Jansen and the Albigensians ................................................................. 194 The Devil ................................................................................................. 197 On religion: reading Lefebvre against himself ...................................... 198 Everyday life ........................................................................................... 200 Space ........................................................................................................ 204 Women ..................................................................................................... 209 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 214 BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd viii 6/19/2007 10:16:37 AM Contents • ix Chapter Five The Ecumenism of Antonio Gramsci ............................ 215 Ecumenism .................................................................................................. 219 Politics: the ‘Eighteenth Brumaire’ of the Holy See .............................. 228 Catholic Action ....................................................................................... 228 Internal con(cid:2) ict: integralists, Jesuits and modernists ....................... 234 Bewilderment? External alliances ........................................................ 239 Intellectuals ................................................................................................. 245 Reformation ................................................................................................ 258 Counter-Reformation and Reformation ............................................. 260 The Italian Luther ................................................................................... 267 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 273 Chapter Six The Apostasy of Terry Eagleton ....................................... 275 Wit and the encyclopaedia, or the tensions of style .............................. 278 Orthodoxy and orthopraxis ...................................................................... 283 Asceticism ............................................................................................... 285 Evil and the humble virtues ................................................................. 287 The absence of sin, or, the politics of forgiveness ............................. 294 Radical christology .................................................................................... 301 Theology redivivus? ................................................................................ 309 The desire for a historical Jesus ............................................................ 313 Christological metaphors ...................................................................... 315 The problem of the personality cult .................................................... 321 An intrinsic Eagleton? (The question of ecclesiology) .......................... 324 Chapter Seven The Conversion of Slavoj Žižek .................................. 335 The darkness of Lacan: the challenge of Butler and Laclau ................. 338 Of truth-events and sundry matters: the challenge of Badiou ............ 343 Materialist grace? ....................................................................................... 359 A glimpse .................................................................................................. 360 The cul-de-sac of ethics and love ......................................................... 364 The Protestant turn .................................................................................... 372 Badiou, or militant gratuitousness ...................................................... 372 The grace of V.I. Lenin .......................................................................... 377 Kierkegaard’s snare ............................................................................... 383 BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd ix 6/19/2007 10:16:37 AM x • Contents Revolutionary grace ............................................................................... 387 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 389 Chapter Eight Adorno’s Vacillation ....................................................... 391 Theological suspicion ................................................................................ 395 Demythologisation ..................................................................................... 399 Faith: inwardness and history .............................................................. 402 Christology .............................................................................................. 409 Sacri(cid:3) ce .................................................................................................... 412 Cosmology: the spheres ........................................................................ 415 Secularised theology .................................................................................. 422 Judaism and the ban on images ............................................................... 430 The possibilities of theology ..................................................................... 439 Love .......................................................................................................... 440 Grace ........................................................................................................ 442 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 443 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 447 References ....................................................................................................... 453 Index of Biblical References ....................................................................... 463 General Index ................................................................................................ 465 BOER_f1_i-xxiv.indd x 6/19/2007 10:16:37 AM
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