The Grace of Materialism. Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek

278 Pages·2017·1.34 MB·English

university of copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
The Grace of Materialism
Karlsen, Mads Peter
Publication date:
2010
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Citation for published version (APA):
Karlsen, M. P. (2010). The Grace of Materialism: Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek . København: Det
Teologiske Fakultet. Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet, Vol.. 21
Download date: 25. nov.. 2018
ISBN 978-87-91838-31-6 M
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The Grace of Materialism
Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek

Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet 21
ISBN 978-87-91838-31-6 M
A
D
S

P
E
T
E
R

K
A
MADS PETER KARLSEN R
L
S
The Grace of Materialism E
N
Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek
Th Th MADS PETER KARLSEN
eolo e G
g r
y a
w c
e
ith o
A f
la M
in a
B te
a r
d ia
iou lis
a m
n
d
S
la
v
o
j Ž
iž
e
k

The Grace of Materialism
Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek

Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet 21
The Grace of Materialism

Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek

In the silence you don’t know,
you must go on, I can’t go on,
I’ll go on.
Samuel Beckett

Ph.D.-Thesis by Mads Peter Karlsen
Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen
Supervisor: Associate Professor, Dr. Theol. Carsten Pallesen
Submitted October 1 2010
The Grace of Materialism
Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek

Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet 21

Licensed under CreativeCommons
Mads Peter Karlsen

ISBN 978-87-91838-31-6 (print)
ISBN 978-87-93361-13-3 (pdf)

Trykning og indbindning:
Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultets ReproCenter
Københavns Universitet 2010

Udgivet af:
Det Teologisk Fakultet
Københavns Universitet
Købmagergade 44-46
1150 København
www.teol.ku.dk
Contents

Acknowledgments / 7

Abbreviations / 8

Prelude: ‘Grace to Breathe That Void’ / 11

Introduction – Hermeneutical and Methodological
Considerations / 13
How to Begin? / 13
The Basic Decision of the Dissertation / 15
The Main Themes of the Dissertation / 16
Questions of Method / 17
The Architecture of the Dissertation / 22

Chapter 1. The Truth of Paul According to Alain Badiou / 25
Introduction / 25
Method and Truth / 28
Antiphilosophy / 37
Badiou’s Use of Paul / 43
Conclusion / 66

Chapter 2. Against the Metaphysics of Finitude, or, Badiou’s
‘Critique of Religion’ / 69
Introduction / 69
The Metaphysics of Finitude / 73
Religion = Meaning / 84
To Have Done with Romanticism / 92
Heidegger Revisited / 103
Conclusion / 105

Chapter 3. Materialism or Theology? Yes, Please! / 109
Introduction / 109
The Split of Materialism / 111
Kantian Trouble … / 121
Badiou as a Reader of Hegel / 129
Saint Paul Revisited / 139
The ‘Minimal Difference’ of Incarnation / 149
Chapter 4. The Return of Immortality – Theories of the
Subject in Badiou and Žižek / 159
Introduction / 159
‘Keep Going!’ / 165
‘Fail Again. Fail Better.’ / 181
Concluding Remarks on Badiou and the Death Drive / 208

Chapter 5. From a Perverse to a Suffering God – Žižek’s
Materialist Reading of Chesterton / 213
Introduction / 213
The Perverse Core of Christianity / 216
A Pauline Reading of Chesterton / 223
Concluding Remarks / 237

Conclusion / 241

Summary (English) / 247

Resumé (Danish) / 251

Bibliography / 253
7

Acknowledgments

An earlier Danish version of chapter one of this dissertation was
published as “Alain Badious Paulus-læsning” in Dansk
Teologisk Tidsskrift 73(1): 56-77, 2010.
8

Abbreviations

The following books by Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek are
indicated by initials:

Alain Badiou

B: Briefings on Existence: A Short Treatise on Transitory
Ontology
BE: Being and Event
C: Conditions
D: Deleuze: The Clamor of Being
E: Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil
HI: Handbook of Inaesthetics
IT: Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy
LW: Logics of Worlds: Being and Event 2
MP: Manifesto for Philosophy
M: Metapolitics
NN: Number and Numbers
OB: On Beckett
P: Polemics
PP: Pocket Pantheon: Figures of Postwar Philosophy
SP: Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism
TC: The Century
TS: Theory of the Subject
TW: Theoretical Writings

Slavoj Žižek

AF: The Abyss of Freedom: Ages of the World
CWZ: Conversations with Žižek
DSST: Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? Five Essays in the
(Mis)Use of a Notion
EYS: Enjoy Your Symptom!: Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and
Out
FA: The Fragile Absolute, or Why the Christian Legacy is Worth
Fighting For?
9

FTKN: For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a
Political Factor
HTRL: How to Read Lacan
IDLC: In Defends of Lost Causes
IR: The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and
Related Matters
LA: Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through
Popular Culture
MC: The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?
OB: On Belief
OWB: Organs without Bodies: On Deleuze and Consequences
PD: The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of
Christianity
PF: The Plague of Fantasies
PV: The Parallax View
SOI: The Sublime Object of Ideology
TTS: The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political
Ontology
TN: Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique
of Ideology
V: Violence: Six Sideways Reflections
WTDR: Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Five Essays on
September 11 and Related Dates

References to all other texts by Badiou and Žižek will be located
in the footnotes. The same goes for any references to websites,
which obviously will not include page numbers.