Criticism of religion : on Marxism and theology, II / / by Roland Boer.

• Superior document: Historical materialism book series, v. 22
• Author: Boer, Roland, 1961-
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Historical materialism book series ; 22.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (308 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Criticism of Religion offers a spirited critical commentary on the engagements with religion and theology by a range of leading Marxist philosophers and critics: Lucien Goldmann, Fredric Jameson, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Kautsky, Julia Kristeva, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, Georg Lukács, and Raymond Williams. Apart from offering sustained critique, the aim is to gather key insights from these critics in order to develop a comprehensive theory of religion. The book follows on the heels of the acclaimed Criticism of Heaven , being the second volume of a five volume series called Criticism of Heaven and Earth .

Table of Contents

The paradoxes of Lucien Goldmann -- The dialectic of grace -- The elect and the damned -- Wagering it all -- In the world and yet not -- Theory : the tight fit of homology -- Homology -- Dialectics? -- Is Pascal among the Marxists? -- By way of conclusion : Marxism as a secular and anti-secular project -- The stumbling block of Fredric Jameson -- Supersession versus a dialectic of ideology and utopia -- Sidestepping religion -- Magic and fantasy -- Feuerbach versus Marx -- The politics of fantasy -- Apocalyptic -- By way of conclusion : towards a dialectic of religion -- The Christian communism of Rosa Luxemburg -- Tactics -- A reformer's zeal -- Betraying the spirit -- A little church history -- Anti-clericalism -- Christian communism -- Consumption versus production -- Completing Cristian communism -- Freedom of conscience -- The enticements of Karl Kautsky -- Text, history, context -- The slipperiness of sacred texts -- The Bible as a cultural product -- Reconstructing economic history -- Differentiation and slaves -- Slaves and other modes of production -- The sacred economy : prolegomena to a reconstruction -- Transitions -- Christian communism -- The forgetfulness of Julia Kristeva -- Flushing out Marx -- Monocausality, or, the taboo of the mother -- The apostle, both ways -- Other-than-human love -- Crucifying the pathologies -- Collectives -- The fables of Alain Badiou -- Banishing the one -- Theology and the event -- A generic procedure of religion? -- Pascal's miracle -- Kierkegaard's encounter -- Paul's fable -- Conclusion : necessary fables -- The conundrums of Giorgio Agamben -- The search for Paul -- Christology, or the problem of Jesus Messiah -- Faith, law and grace as placeholder of the void -- Pre-law, or trying to make sense of Paul -- Conclusion : relativising theology -- The self-exorcism of Georg Lukács -- A world abandoned by God -- Leap-frogging Christianity -- Autobiographical exorcism -- The Bible and the beekeeper's manual -- An apparent absence? -- Warm Marxism -- Autobiography -- Welshness -- The working class -- Conclusion : the vanishing mediator of the Baptist chapel.