university of copenhagen The Grace of Materialism Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek Karlsen, Mads Peter Publication date: 2010 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Document license: CC BY-NC-ND Citation for published version (APA): Karlsen, M. P. (2010). The Grace of Materialism: Theology with Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek . Det Teologiske Fakultet. Publikationer fra Det Teologiske Fakultet Vol. 21 Download date: 07. feb.. 2023 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 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.