Curtis A. Bronzan

The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?, by Slavoj Žižek, John Milbank, and Creston Davis must have sold well. The three are teaming up again with Paul’s New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology. Amazon’s description asserts:

The rediscovery of the Apostle Paul by atheistic or agnostic European philosophers is one of the most striking developments in recent philosophy – and certainly one of keen interest to the church. These philosophers view Paul as having a revolutionary understanding of authority and politics. Bringing together Radical Orthodox theologian John Milbank, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and Creston Davis, who has been a student of both, this book reflects on Paul’s new moment in secular philosophy. In a debate format, Žižek brings Marxist and post-Marxist ideas into a discussion with Milbank about the influence of Paul. The book also includes a contribution from Catherine Pickstock.

I’ve engaged a bit of this “rediscovery” in Alain Badiou’s Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism, which may be engaged by Milbank in chapter 8 of Paul’s New Moment, entitled “Thinking Backwards, Again! Badiou and the Death of Philosophy.” I look forward to possibly reading this one, though Žižek and Milbank’s sparring previously proved a bit tiresome. Adam Kotsko, author of Žižek and Theology has written of Žižek (and then Milbank) some thoughts I’m tempted agree with:

What I do find important is that very bizarre thing that seems to have happened in Christ and in his wake. People who help me, directly or indirectly, to think about that wierd (sic) happening in new or more rigorous ways inspire gratitude in me. People who do not inspire boredom and frustration in me – or in the case of Milbank, both. I think that’s probably a more helpful way of divvying things up, if we must so divvy.

Notice also Baker’s description, which is searching for a different audience, it seems:

Are there moments in Christian history when non-Christians in some ways understand Christianity better than Christians? The church fathers and mothers often did especially acute theology because they could remember well what it meant to inhabit non-Christian philosophies and religions. The Hindu Ghandi saw and acted on something in Christ’s witness that many confessing Christians overlooked. Today, some leading secular thinkers have turned to a surprising source: the Apostle Paul. The rediscovery of Paul by atheistic or agnostic European philosophers is one of the most striking developments in recent philosophy – and certainly one of keen interest to the church.

Bringing together Radical Orthodox theologian John Milbank, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, and Creston Davis, who has been a student of both, this book reflects on Paul’s new moment in secular philosophy. In a debate format, Zizek brings Marxist and post-Marxist ideas into a discussion with Milbank about the influence of Paul. The book also includes a contribution from Catherine Pickstock.

Paul’s New Moment will be of interest to theologians, philosophers, cultural critics, and literary scholars.

David Bazan’s forthcoming Curse Your Branches has been spinning in my car all day; round and round in all it’s brilliance. While Bazan (formerly of Pedro the Lion) has always engaged in the theological, in recent years his perspective has shifted considerably, from evangelical Christian to agnostic, if not atheist.

Though each of Curse Your Branches’ ten songs engage a lofty – and rather modern – theological construct, the final verse of the last song on the record, “The Stitches”, sounds like the Seattle area songwriter has been sitting down with the Slovenian “Elvis of cultural theory.” Curse Your Branches concludes thusly:

When Job asked you a question
You answered “Who are you?”
That sounds a bit defensive
Did you just bite off more than you could chew?

In his recent theological title fight with John Milbank – and in conversation with Vattimo and Caputo’s weak thought – Marxist, militant atheist Slavoj Žižek (the aforentioned “Elvis”) equates Christ’s death with Job’s suffering.

Christ’s death on the Cross thus means we should immediately ditch the notion of God as a transcendent caretaker who guarantees the happy outcome of our acts… (The Monstrosity of Christ, 55)

He goes on:

What, then, if this is what Job percieved and what kept him silent: he remained silent neither because he was crushed by God’s overwhelming presence, nor because he wanted thereby to indicate his continuous resistance – the fact that God avoided answering his question – but because, in a gesture of silent solidarity, he percieved the divine impotence. God is neither just nor unjust, but simply impotent. What Job suddenly understood was that it was not him, but God himself who was in effect on trial in Job’s calamities, and he failed the test miserably. (The Monstrosity of Christ, 55-56)

Žižek concludes this section asserting the “radical notion” that Job even foresaw Christ’s suffering!

How interesting that both Bazan and Žižek engage faith – at least in part – from the perspective of a narrative that predates any other canonical book. Are there deconstructive efforts at work here that end up leaving the rest of the Narrative on the cutting room floor?

Ought Job and Jesus be so closely intertwined? And which should interpret the other? And what of the charge of impotence? Can it be justified if we gather up all that has been cut out?