The Relationship of Canon and Messiah: The Convergence of Jan Assmann and Walter Benjamin on a Theory of Monotheistic Canon

This paper focuses upon the relationship between the German Egyptologist Jan Assmann and the German-Jewish late modern literary critic Walter Benjamin as regards the movement from canons to messianic forces. It therefore traces the evolution in Assmann’s thought from issues surrounding the processes of canonization to his development of a form of ‘weak thought’ in relation to religious violence before then turning to Benjamin’s portrayal of a ‘weak messianic force’ moving through history which is only conceivable in close proximity to a scriptural legacy and a divine (or ‘pure’) violence, as he saw it. Additionally, this essay draws a line connecting the work of each in order to solidify the structure and function of the monotheistic canon as being not only at the heart of western civilization, but also at the heart of all cultural transmissions today. That is, the formal elements at work in the canonical-messianic relationship are universally applicable for all identity formation of modern subjectivities, whether political, cultural or religious, insofar as the entire realm of representations appears to be governed by a canonical sense of normativity. A closer inspection then of how these elements were brought together in their original religious context might therefore better enable us to discern the effects which canons have upon the construction of identities in a globalized world today

The “Violence” of the Canon: Revisiting Contemporary Notions of the Canonical

The historical conditions surrounding the processes of forming a canon (its canonicity) are rarely examined directly, yet it is these processes which govern over the realm of (religious) representations and identity constructions. In light of several recent publications which have directly criticized the explicitly monotheistic scriptures, it has become imperative to address theologically the role which the canon plays within religious tradition. By focusing on the role of the canonical form in the works of Jan Assmann and René Girard, for example, this essay will demonstrate the cultural necessity of canonical forms despite their ‘monotheistic tendency’ to subdivide the world into binary divisions. In this regard, it is by utilizing a scale of violence to determine the impact of the canonical form upon culture that this essay seeks to provide an account of canons and their role in forming religious identities over and beyond the violence they are said to provoke in our world. Through a clarification of the violence which a canon is capable of promoting within societies, another alternative perspective of canons can emerge. Such an alternative moreover serves to reveal the violence at the core of cultural-canonical norms, thus providing a valuable distinction between differing (violence-concealing or violence-revealing) canonical forms

Searching for a Self-Reflexive Theology: Ways Forward for Systematic Theology in Relation to (Non) Religious Thought in Contemporary Western Culture

This article aims to draw attention, first, to the need to explore the inner plurality of theological discourse, as such plural discourses serve to promote a certain dynamism and fullness within theology as a field, especially in relation to religious studies today. Second, such a potential fullness is reflected in the modern struggle to characterize the relationship between faith and reason. Comprehending the misunderstandings, often construed as an impasse between faith and reason, could foster new relations between scientific methods and theological imaginations. Third, understanding these tensions from a systematic theological perspective also entails a more precise analysis of the structural dynamics between theology and the Church. Our contention is that there must be a permanent, dynamic tension between theology and the institutional structures that are the Church in order for self-critical impulses to be maintained as well as for the individual’s life of faith to find its reason

Are the Only True Atheists Actually Theologians?

Contemporary continental European philosophy circulates around particular apocalyptic themes, offering new insights and suggestive proposals for theology to think through the implications of this often most difficult of religious subjects. As such philosophies manoeuvre to define apocalyptic through its return to questions of antinomian thought, of the \u27interruption\u27 of normative religious imagery, and of the negation of our most cherished theological representations (including our representations of God and the Law), we constantly find these philosophers engaged with the most basic foundations of Western religious history. From its inception, apocalyptic has been a genre of literature, and more generally of religious thought, concerned with unveiling what was previously hidden. Yet what exactly it has sought to disclose has not always been so clear. An apocalyptic message is certainly being sent through many religious channels about the \u27normal\u27 manner of doing things this side of heaven, but we humans have not always been able to receive that message \u27in full\u27. In many ways, apocalyptic thought tells us to listen closely, for something important is going to be revealed to us, although we are not always sure what the revelation that is taking place is. Nevertheless, a conversation between humanity and a higher truth (or deity) is staged and tries to provide us with a glimpse of what (new) relations are possible between humanity and God. No doubt true dialogue will take place only when we are stripped of our arrogant presumptions concerning the nature of humanity\u27s relationship to truth: quite simply, we are not God. In many ways, the humility within this realization propels apocalyptic thinking to relativize the many human truths we surround ourselves with for security, and loosens the normative boundaries that ceaselessly divide yet constitute our (highly symbolic) world

Slavoj Žižek on Jacques Derrida, or On Derrida’s Search for a Middle Ground Between Marx and Benjamin, and His Finding Žižek Instead

Critiques of Derrida from contemporary Marxist positions are nothing new, though the nature and force of their argumentation need to be further analyzed in order to conceive of what stake Derrida will continue to have in our understanding of any political (Hegelian) inheritance within the coming decades. In this essay, I seek to advance the conversation between Derrida and his Hegelian-Marxist critics—with Slavoj Žižek’s unique reading of Derrida being here foremost among them—in order to ascertain more precisely the framework of debate on dialectics and deconstruction that continues to define our realms of political representation

The Problem of Having both a Body and a Name in the Work of Jean-Luc Marion: Names, Fathers and the Hopeful Possibilities of a Queer Phenomenology

In this essay, and following upon both Jacques Lacan’s and Jacques Derrida’s personal struggles with fatherhood and the naming of their children, I take up what I consider to be Jean-Luc Marion’s failure to deal with the embodiment of fatherhood through an examination of patriarchal signification, or, specifically, the naming of one’s children after the father—at least insofar as Marion’s brief analysis of this symbolic act points toward his failure to think through the various potential and lived embodiments of the father. I aim to illuminate how his efforts to continue this naming of the child with the father’s name speak more directly to an idealized (‘theologized’) vision of our world that need not be serviced, indeed, which we would benefit from not utilizing at all. I wish, in an autobiographical-phenomenological response to Marion, to point to other names, other relationships and other ways of perceiving how one might be situated within our world—what I follow Sara Ahmed in calling ‘queer’ ways in which a phenomenological account of the subject’s identity is not a pretext for perpetuating a quasi-theological, patriarchal agenda

Citing ‘Whatever’ Authority: The Ethics of Quotation in the Work of Giorgio Agamben

This paper seeks to lay out an analysis of Giorgio Agamben’s central claims with regard to the formation of a theory of citationality. By juxtaposing Walter Benjamin’s theory of citations alongside his more recent, critical engagements with the western theological tradition, Agamben sets himself the goal of redefining ethics along Levinasian lines in order to arrive at a respect for the face of ‘whatever’ being before us, the true source toward which all citations point

What Christians Need No Longer Defend: The Political Stakes of Considering Antinomianism as Central to the Practice and History of Theology

Through a brief history of antinomian thought within the modern period, and the inspection of two contemporary responses to the ‘antinomian impulse’, I refocus the antinomian debate as being, not necessarily a heretical endeavor, but rather a dialectic between history and memory, structure and experience. Rather than portray antinomianism as a threat to the system which needs to be removed, perhaps we can learn to perceive it as a ‘weak messianic force’ moving through all constituted (religious) identities, not, then, as the end of ‘Christianity’ as an organized religion, but its original proclamation, ever in need of greater reformation

Bruno Latour and The Myth of Autonomous Academic Discipline: Rethinking Education in the Light of Various Modes of Existence

Background: Issues of identity, interdependence, relationality and violence are far larger than the human species alone, although humanity has often pretended as if it alone were the beneficiaries of studying such ideas. Aim: Pedagogically, the complexity of existence beyond human being must influence the traditional humanities curriculum or risk further isolation and alienation within humanity-dominant narratives. Setting: As climate change continues to alter our comprehension of what is truly at stake in the survival of life on this planet, however, humankind needs a complete rethinking of its relationship with the multiple forms of life that dwell alongside it, as well as the traditional division between the humanities and the sciences within academic settings. Methods: It is with this scenario before us that I turn to the work of Bruno Latour who re-conceives of humanity’s relationship with nature as an interdisciplinary and boundary-crossing project, one that has deep pedagogical implications. Results: I demonstrate how Latour’s collaborative and highly original work ranges across disciplines and provides new ways to contemplate research in academia. Conclusion: Latour’s thought moves beyond polarising anti-humanist language and towards a way to limit the sovereign claims of humanity, opening discourse towards other non-human participants