'Žižek and Theology' to start new series

This is a guest post by Adam Kotsko of Chicago Theological Seminary. Adam's book Zizek and Theology will open our new series "Philosopy and Theology" in May 2008 (US pub date is July 2008). The books in the series will look at major philosophers and their contribution to and the reaction from theology. Other books in preparation for the series are dealing with Nietzsche, Badiou, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Hegel, Kant and Kierkegaard .

My goal in writing Žižek and Theology was to provide an introduction to Žižek’s thought with an eye toward making sense of his turn toward Christianity in the early 2000’s. I chose to take a comprehensive approach, covering his major works from The Sublime Object of Ideology (1989) to The Parallax View (2006). Beyond the practical necessity of introducing the many concepts from his earlier works that Žižek relies upon in the books on Christianity, I felt that such an approach was the only way to provide a coherent account of why Žižek turned to Christianity when he did and with such enthusiasm. Thus I organized my presentation around a narrative account of Žižek’s development. I divided his English-language work into three successive periods and, in good Hegelian fashion, attempt to demonstrate that each shift arises out of a deadlock in the previous period. With this scheme in hand, I argued that Žižek’s shift toward Christianity, though it is prompted by the contingent encounter with Alain Badiou’s book Saint Paul, was a necessary move in terms of the internal demands of Žižek’s developing thought. In addition to being the first to focus specifically on Žižek’s engagement with theology, Žižek and Theology is the first introductory work on Žižek to take such an emphatically developmental approach. My introduction includes a brief biographical sketch and explains Žižek’s relationship to his three primary sources: Hegel, Lacan, and Marx. The heart of the book is the exposition of Žižek’s intellectual trajectory.

The first two chapters deal with Žižek’s work before the turn to theology, focusing on Žižek’s attempt to inject Lacanian concepts into the theory of ideology and his development of a theory of subjectivity, respectively. Chapter three lays out Žižek’s approach to Christianity, addressing the reasons why Žižek believes Paul to be particularly relevant to our era, his account of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and his stance on the distinctive form of community that arises out of the death of Christ. The fourth chapter discusses The Parallax View, his self-proclaimed “magnum opus,” with a particular emphasis on the continued importance of theology for the present stage of Žižek’s thought. Beyond the focus on Žižek’s turn to Christianity, Žižek and Theology includes several features that will be of particular interest to scholars of religion. The fifth chapter assesses various critical responses to Žižek’s work by theologians and indicates ways in which his apparently “non-theological” writings may be of relevance to scholars of religion, then concludes by relating Žižek’s thought to that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thomas Altizer. In addition, throughout the book I mainly provide my own examples, many of which are drawn from the history of theology and contemporary religious culture.

Comments

[Ben Myers]

Sounds like an exciting new series. And I love the cover: perfect for a book on Žižek!

[Tom]

Hi Ben, I am glad you like the design. We like it too (of course), but were a bit anxious whether people would find it too scary...

[karl villarmea]

how about the xray picture of the pelvis/hip area instead?
it is more zizekian--i think

[Toadvine]

Looking forward to it. Will you sign my copy?