Armando Maggi
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226501345
- eISBN:
- 9780226501369
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226501369.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter analyzes Pasolini's film Saint Paul. The film is a double biography, of Paul the apostle and of Pasolini the artist. Moreover, Pasolini contends that Paul is a divided figure, a figure ...
More
This chapter analyzes Pasolini's film Saint Paul. The film is a double biography, of Paul the apostle and of Pasolini the artist. Moreover, Pasolini contends that Paul is a divided figure, a figure of internal oppositions. Paul is both a priest, the founder of a repressive institution (the Church), and a prophet who announces the apocalyptic end of that institution. For Pasolini, analogical is also the apostle and the poet's view of time and the sacred. In Pasolini's interpretation, the apostle lived in a historical era split between the past of Jesus' sacred time, and the present dominated by a longing for that original manifestation of the sacred. Pasolini also believes that in our present times Paul's statements have lost their sacredness because modernity cannot understand the longing that characterized the apostle's message. To yearn for the sacred today means to yearn for something that does not exist. Pasolini's longing for the sacred is defined as nostalgic in that nostalgia is the rejection of the present in favor of a past that the subject has never experienced and will never experience.Less
This chapter analyzes Pasolini's film Saint Paul. The film is a double biography, of Paul the apostle and of Pasolini the artist. Moreover, Pasolini contends that Paul is a divided figure, a figure of internal oppositions. Paul is both a priest, the founder of a repressive institution (the Church), and a prophet who announces the apocalyptic end of that institution. For Pasolini, analogical is also the apostle and the poet's view of time and the sacred. In Pasolini's interpretation, the apostle lived in a historical era split between the past of Jesus' sacred time, and the present dominated by a longing for that original manifestation of the sacred. Pasolini also believes that in our present times Paul's statements have lost their sacredness because modernity cannot understand the longing that characterized the apostle's message. To yearn for the sacred today means to yearn for something that does not exist. Pasolini's longing for the sacred is defined as nostalgic in that nostalgia is the rejection of the present in favor of a past that the subject has never experienced and will never experience.
Christopher Bryan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199752096
- eISBN:
- 9780199895076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199752096.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter examines Saint Paul's account of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul's letters have provided a basis for subsequent theological reflection in virtually every Christian tradition, ...
More
This chapter examines Saint Paul's account of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul's letters have provided a basis for subsequent theological reflection in virtually every Christian tradition, and they have been able to do this because underlying their variety of subject and expression we can discern a single fundamental and consistently held belief: namely, that the crucified Jesus is Son of God and exalted Lord. Paul's purpose in his letters is evidently not, in general, to inform his hearers about the life of Jesus but to assist and encourage them in living the life of Christian discipleship.Less
This chapter examines Saint Paul's account of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul's letters have provided a basis for subsequent theological reflection in virtually every Christian tradition, and they have been able to do this because underlying their variety of subject and expression we can discern a single fundamental and consistently held belief: namely, that the crucified Jesus is Son of God and exalted Lord. Paul's purpose in his letters is evidently not, in general, to inform his hearers about the life of Jesus but to assist and encourage them in living the life of Christian discipleship.
Armando Maggi
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226501345
- eISBN:
- 9780226501369
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226501369.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Italian novelist, poet, and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini was brutally killed in Rome in 1975, a macabre end to a career that often explored humanity's capacity for violence and cruelty. Along with ...
More
Italian novelist, poet, and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini was brutally killed in Rome in 1975, a macabre end to a career that often explored humanity's capacity for violence and cruelty. Along with the mystery of his murderer's identity, Pasolini left behind a controversial but acclaimed oeuvre as well as a final quartet of beguiling projects that signaled a radical change in his aesthetics and view of reality. This book is an interpretation of these final works: the screenplay Saint Paul, the scenario for Porn-Theo-Colossal, the immense and unfinished novel Petrolio, and his notorious final film, 120 Days of Sodom, a disturbing adaptation of the writings of the Marquis de Sade. Together these works, the author contends, reveal Pasolini's obsession with sodomy and its role within his apocalyptic view of Western society. Exploring the ramifications of Pasolini's homosexuality, the book also breaks new ground by putting his work into fruitful conversation with an array of other thinkers such as Freud, Strindberg, Swift, Henri Michaux, and Norman O. Brown.Less
Italian novelist, poet, and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini was brutally killed in Rome in 1975, a macabre end to a career that often explored humanity's capacity for violence and cruelty. Along with the mystery of his murderer's identity, Pasolini left behind a controversial but acclaimed oeuvre as well as a final quartet of beguiling projects that signaled a radical change in his aesthetics and view of reality. This book is an interpretation of these final works: the screenplay Saint Paul, the scenario for Porn-Theo-Colossal, the immense and unfinished novel Petrolio, and his notorious final film, 120 Days of Sodom, a disturbing adaptation of the writings of the Marquis de Sade. Together these works, the author contends, reveal Pasolini's obsession with sodomy and its role within his apocalyptic view of Western society. Exploring the ramifications of Pasolini's homosexuality, the book also breaks new ground by putting his work into fruitful conversation with an array of other thinkers such as Freud, Strindberg, Swift, Henri Michaux, and Norman O. Brown.
Mary Waters (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520270923
- eISBN:
- 9780520950184
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520270923.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
What is it like to become an adult in twenty-first-century America? This book takes us to four very different places—New York City; San Diego; rural Iowa; and Saint Paul, Minnesota—to explore the ...
More
What is it like to become an adult in twenty-first-century America? This book takes us to four very different places—New York City; San Diego; rural Iowa; and Saint Paul, Minnesota—to explore the dramatic shifts in coming-of-age experiences across the country. Drawing from in-depth interviews with people in their twenties and early thirties, it probes experiences and decisions surrounding education, work, marriage, parenthood, and housing. The first study to systematically explore this phenomenon from a qualitative perspective, the book offers a clear view of how traditional patterns and expectations are changing, of the range of forces that are shaping these changes, and of how young people themselves view their lives.Less
What is it like to become an adult in twenty-first-century America? This book takes us to four very different places—New York City; San Diego; rural Iowa; and Saint Paul, Minnesota—to explore the dramatic shifts in coming-of-age experiences across the country. Drawing from in-depth interviews with people in their twenties and early thirties, it probes experiences and decisions surrounding education, work, marriage, parenthood, and housing. The first study to systematically explore this phenomenon from a qualitative perspective, the book offers a clear view of how traditional patterns and expectations are changing, of the range of forces that are shaping these changes, and of how young people themselves view their lives.
Christa Davis Acampora
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226923901
- eISBN:
- 9780226923918
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226923918.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This work offers a rethinking of Friedrich Nietzsche’s crucial notion of the agon. Analyzing an array of primary and secondary sources and synthesizing decades of Nietzsche scholarship, it shows how ...
More
This work offers a rethinking of Friedrich Nietzsche’s crucial notion of the agon. Analyzing an array of primary and secondary sources and synthesizing decades of Nietzsche scholarship, it shows how the agon, or contest, organized core areas of Nietzsche’s philosophy, providing an appreciation of the subtleties of his notorious views about power. By focusing so intensely on this particular guiding interest, the book offers a vantage point from which to view this iconic thinker. Though existence—viewed through the lens of Nietzsche’s agon—is fraught with struggle, the book illuminates what Nietzsche recognized as the agon’s generative benefits. It imbues the human experience with significance, meaning, and value. Analyzing Nietzsche’s elaborations of agonism—his remarks on types of contests, qualities of contestants, and the conditions in which either may thrive or deteriorate—the book demonstrates how much the agon shaped his philosophical projects and critical assessments of others. The agon led Nietzsche from one set of concerns to the next, from aesthetics to metaphysics to ethics to psychology, via Homer, Socrates, Saint Paul, and Wagner. In showing how one obsession catalyzed so many diverse interests, the book sheds light on some of this philosopher’s most difficult and paradoxical ideas.Less
This work offers a rethinking of Friedrich Nietzsche’s crucial notion of the agon. Analyzing an array of primary and secondary sources and synthesizing decades of Nietzsche scholarship, it shows how the agon, or contest, organized core areas of Nietzsche’s philosophy, providing an appreciation of the subtleties of his notorious views about power. By focusing so intensely on this particular guiding interest, the book offers a vantage point from which to view this iconic thinker. Though existence—viewed through the lens of Nietzsche’s agon—is fraught with struggle, the book illuminates what Nietzsche recognized as the agon’s generative benefits. It imbues the human experience with significance, meaning, and value. Analyzing Nietzsche’s elaborations of agonism—his remarks on types of contests, qualities of contestants, and the conditions in which either may thrive or deteriorate—the book demonstrates how much the agon shaped his philosophical projects and critical assessments of others. The agon led Nietzsche from one set of concerns to the next, from aesthetics to metaphysics to ethics to psychology, via Homer, Socrates, Saint Paul, and Wagner. In showing how one obsession catalyzed so many diverse interests, the book sheds light on some of this philosopher’s most difficult and paradoxical ideas.
Jason M. Wirth
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823268207
- eISBN:
- 9780823272471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823268207.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The final two chapters belong together and explore in genealogical detail the nature of a novelist’s authorial voice in relationship to the problem of History (the grand march of reason). These two ...
More
The final two chapters belong together and explore in genealogical detail the nature of a novelist’s authorial voice in relationship to the problem of History (the grand march of reason). These two chapters do so by broadly taking up the question of imitation (μίμησις) or repetition in relationship to the universe of the novel. How does the novel take itself up again when it does not claim the power to represent itself to itself and when its compositional forms are subject to ongoing negotiation? The novel does not recognize itself because it both eschews representation (of its universe and of itself) and continues to experiment with its forms. Nonetheless it is possible to speak of a history of the novel, albeit a history that is a revenge on the grand march of self-representation that we call History. What is this elusive temporality that allows the novel to develop discernible lineages without ceasing to be a question to itself? How do we grasp the history of the novel, “which is not a mere succession of events but an intentional pursuit of values” (Art of the Novel, 154)? Given that this present study locates itself in the mobile border between the universe of philosophy and the universe of the novel, these two chapters address the problem at hand by examining the borderline persona of the idiot. This chapter begins with a consideration of Nietzsche and then traces this figure from Saint Paul via Cusanus, Descartes, and Ignatius of Loyola.Less
The final two chapters belong together and explore in genealogical detail the nature of a novelist’s authorial voice in relationship to the problem of History (the grand march of reason). These two chapters do so by broadly taking up the question of imitation (μίμησις) or repetition in relationship to the universe of the novel. How does the novel take itself up again when it does not claim the power to represent itself to itself and when its compositional forms are subject to ongoing negotiation? The novel does not recognize itself because it both eschews representation (of its universe and of itself) and continues to experiment with its forms. Nonetheless it is possible to speak of a history of the novel, albeit a history that is a revenge on the grand march of self-representation that we call History. What is this elusive temporality that allows the novel to develop discernible lineages without ceasing to be a question to itself? How do we grasp the history of the novel, “which is not a mere succession of events but an intentional pursuit of values” (Art of the Novel, 154)? Given that this present study locates itself in the mobile border between the universe of philosophy and the universe of the novel, these two chapters address the problem at hand by examining the borderline persona of the idiot. This chapter begins with a consideration of Nietzsche and then traces this figure from Saint Paul via Cusanus, Descartes, and Ignatius of Loyola.
Carol E. Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452451
- eISBN:
- 9780801470592
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452451.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter explores the relationship between the believing Catholic and the wider community by focusing on Frédéric and Amélie Ozanam. Frédéric Ozanam, the founder of the lay Catholic charitable ...
More
This chapter explores the relationship between the believing Catholic and the wider community by focusing on Frédéric and Amélie Ozanam. Frédéric Ozanam, the founder of the lay Catholic charitable Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, was a prominent Catholic republican in 1848 when he articulated a Christian response to the social question. The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul grew out of his desire to remain connected to the world of bachelor male friends, but as this chapter shows, marriage to Amélie Soulacroix transformed Ozanam's sense of his obligations and led him to reconsider his rapport with the society in which he lived. The chapter also discusses Ozanam's views on charity and social justice in relation to the Catholic Church, his concept of a Catholic social, and his role in fin de siècle social Catholicism.Less
This chapter explores the relationship between the believing Catholic and the wider community by focusing on Frédéric and Amélie Ozanam. Frédéric Ozanam, the founder of the lay Catholic charitable Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, was a prominent Catholic republican in 1848 when he articulated a Christian response to the social question. The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul grew out of his desire to remain connected to the world of bachelor male friends, but as this chapter shows, marriage to Amélie Soulacroix transformed Ozanam's sense of his obligations and led him to reconsider his rapport with the society in which he lived. The chapter also discusses Ozanam's views on charity and social justice in relation to the Catholic Church, his concept of a Catholic social, and his role in fin de siècle social Catholicism.
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226662749
- eISBN:
- 9780226662756
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226662756.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter describes Saint Paul as a theorist of communication. The discourse network of Paul's time informs his reflections on communication, specifically, about the difference between speaking by ...
More
This chapter describes Saint Paul as a theorist of communication. The discourse network of Paul's time informs his reflections on communication, specifically, about the difference between speaking by letter and speaking in person, presence, and absence. Paul effectively adapts the letter as a genre of preaching and intervention in Christian culture. His scribe for the epistle to the Romans was appropriately named Tertius, who takes the liberty of adding his own greeting to Paul's long list of personal greetings to the saints at Rome. His letters began and ended as voiced speech, and were designed to be read and heard aloud in the assembly, not as private silent reading, which was relatively rare in antiquity anyway. Paul's vision of a collective that is united ritually at a distance is a central source for the western tradition of theorizing mass communication, and anticipates print culture's national readerships and electronic media's simultaneous but dispersed audiences.Less
This chapter describes Saint Paul as a theorist of communication. The discourse network of Paul's time informs his reflections on communication, specifically, about the difference between speaking by letter and speaking in person, presence, and absence. Paul effectively adapts the letter as a genre of preaching and intervention in Christian culture. His scribe for the epistle to the Romans was appropriately named Tertius, who takes the liberty of adding his own greeting to Paul's long list of personal greetings to the saints at Rome. His letters began and ended as voiced speech, and were designed to be read and heard aloud in the assembly, not as private silent reading, which was relatively rare in antiquity anyway. Paul's vision of a collective that is united ritually at a distance is a central source for the western tradition of theorizing mass communication, and anticipates print culture's national readerships and electronic media's simultaneous but dispersed audiences.
Ward Blanton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166911
- eISBN:
- 9780231536455
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166911.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book argues that genealogical interventions into the political economies of Western cultural memory do not go far enough in relation to the imagined founder of Christianity, the apostle Paul. It ...
More
This book argues that genealogical interventions into the political economies of Western cultural memory do not go far enough in relation to the imagined founder of Christianity, the apostle Paul. It explains how Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud saw Christianity as metaphysical escapism, with Nietzsche calling the religion a “Platonism for the masses” and faulting Saint Paul for negating more immanent, material modes of thought and political solidarity. The book integrates this debate with the philosophies of difference espoused by Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. It then challenges the idea of Paulinism as a pop Platonic worldview or form of social control. It also unearths Pauline legacies from previously repressed sources that provide resources for new materialist spiritualities and new forms of radical political solidarity. It argues that these liberate “religion” from inherited interpretive assumptions and that they allow philosophical thought to be manifested in a new, risky, and radical freedom.Less
This book argues that genealogical interventions into the political economies of Western cultural memory do not go far enough in relation to the imagined founder of Christianity, the apostle Paul. It explains how Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud saw Christianity as metaphysical escapism, with Nietzsche calling the religion a “Platonism for the masses” and faulting Saint Paul for negating more immanent, material modes of thought and political solidarity. The book integrates this debate with the philosophies of difference espoused by Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. It then challenges the idea of Paulinism as a pop Platonic worldview or form of social control. It also unearths Pauline legacies from previously repressed sources that provide resources for new materialist spiritualities and new forms of radical political solidarity. It argues that these liberate “religion” from inherited interpretive assumptions and that they allow philosophical thought to be manifested in a new, risky, and radical freedom.
Brett Rushforth
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835586
- eISBN:
- 9781469601359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807838174_rushforth.12
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter considers the forces that shaped slavery in the Saint Lawrence Valley. The dynamics of slavery were especially pronounced in Montreal's Rue Saint Paul but were more or less seen ...
More
This chapter considers the forces that shaped slavery in the Saint Lawrence Valley. The dynamics of slavery were especially pronounced in Montreal's Rue Saint Paul but were more or less seen throughout the settlement. The chapter presents narratives of four enslaved Indians from this neighborhood, providing a glimpse into the social, legal, and cultural contours of this slave system.Less
This chapter considers the forces that shaped slavery in the Saint Lawrence Valley. The dynamics of slavery were especially pronounced in Montreal's Rue Saint Paul but were more or less seen throughout the settlement. The chapter presents narratives of four enslaved Indians from this neighborhood, providing a glimpse into the social, legal, and cultural contours of this slave system.
Richard Sorabji
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199644339
- eISBN:
- 9780191745812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644339.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
The Greek expression for conscience meant in the 5th century BCE: sharing with oneself, as if one were split into two, knowledge of a personal defect, not yet always a moral one. The Christian Saint ...
More
The Greek expression for conscience meant in the 5th century BCE: sharing with oneself, as if one were split into two, knowledge of a personal defect, not yet always a moral one. The Christian Saint Paul was to link knowledge of the personal with knowledge of a general law of both right and wrong. Gandhi paraphrased in Gujarati Plato's Apology, in which Socrates is portrayed as having an inner warning voice. Platonists were to identify it with conscience, and, like Gandhi, to discuss how it worked. Gandhi treated his own inner voice, like Socrates but unlike Saint Paul, as indubitable, but conceded that it takes practice to hear it aright. He regarded the voice as God's, but as reminding one of values, not as supplying them, and as binding, even when mistaken. Conscience, he thought, speaks only to the individual, but may tell one to change the conduct of others.Less
The Greek expression for conscience meant in the 5th century BCE: sharing with oneself, as if one were split into two, knowledge of a personal defect, not yet always a moral one. The Christian Saint Paul was to link knowledge of the personal with knowledge of a general law of both right and wrong. Gandhi paraphrased in Gujarati Plato's Apology, in which Socrates is portrayed as having an inner warning voice. Platonists were to identify it with conscience, and, like Gandhi, to discuss how it worked. Gandhi treated his own inner voice, like Socrates but unlike Saint Paul, as indubitable, but conceded that it takes practice to hear it aright. He regarded the voice as God's, but as reminding one of values, not as supplying them, and as binding, even when mistaken. Conscience, he thought, speaks only to the individual, but may tell one to change the conduct of others.
Roberto Esposito
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823267613
- eISBN:
- 9780823272396
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823267613.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The concept of ‘katechon,’ which Carl Schmitt talks about especially in his book The Nomos of the Earth, is taken from a passage in Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians. What Paul means by this ...
More
The concept of ‘katechon,’ which Carl Schmitt talks about especially in his book The Nomos of the Earth, is taken from a passage in Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians. What Paul means by this enigmatic expression is a historical or spiritual power that holds back the arrival of the Antichrist, thereby delaying it. But in doing so, the katechon also delays the Second Coming of Christ (parousia) and the final triumph of Good over Evil. By containing within itself the evil that it opposes, the katechon is a classic figure of political theology. It is difficult to identify the historical subject of the katechon: it may refer to the Roman Empire but also to the Church. In our current state of globalization, the katechon can be recognized in a unification of the world based on its division between a wealthy, dominant part and a poor, subordinate part.Less
The concept of ‘katechon,’ which Carl Schmitt talks about especially in his book The Nomos of the Earth, is taken from a passage in Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians. What Paul means by this enigmatic expression is a historical or spiritual power that holds back the arrival of the Antichrist, thereby delaying it. But in doing so, the katechon also delays the Second Coming of Christ (parousia) and the final triumph of Good over Evil. By containing within itself the evil that it opposes, the katechon is a classic figure of political theology. It is difficult to identify the historical subject of the katechon: it may refer to the Roman Empire but also to the Church. In our current state of globalization, the katechon can be recognized in a unification of the world based on its division between a wealthy, dominant part and a poor, subordinate part.
Ward Blanton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166911
- eISBN:
- 9780231536455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166911.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book explores the political economies of Western cultural memory in relation to the apostle Paul, imagined founder of Christianity. Focusing on the “afterlives” of Saint Paul in relation to more ...
More
This book explores the political economies of Western cultural memory in relation to the apostle Paul, imagined founder of Christianity. Focusing on the “afterlives” of Saint Paul in relation to more recent genealogies of a new materialism, it examines how Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud saw Christianity as metaphysical escapism, with the former calling the religion a “Platonism for the masses” and faulting Paul for negating more immanent, material modes of thought and political solidarity. It also considers why Jacques Derrida deconstructs—or reads in what he calls a “materialist” mode—Platonic assumptions about intentionality in craft production or authorship in text production while rejecting and lampooning what he perceives to be the retrograde dualistic metaphysics of Paul. It suggests that Plato's dualistic metaphysic is worked into a model of complex material immanence, whereas Paul is simply expelled as a purveyor of a Platonism for the masses, a thinker of “the veil.” Finally, it analyzes the New Testament book of Acts' narrative appropriation of Paulinism and the eventual apparatus of a Platonism for the masses.Less
This book explores the political economies of Western cultural memory in relation to the apostle Paul, imagined founder of Christianity. Focusing on the “afterlives” of Saint Paul in relation to more recent genealogies of a new materialism, it examines how Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud saw Christianity as metaphysical escapism, with the former calling the religion a “Platonism for the masses” and faulting Paul for negating more immanent, material modes of thought and political solidarity. It also considers why Jacques Derrida deconstructs—or reads in what he calls a “materialist” mode—Platonic assumptions about intentionality in craft production or authorship in text production while rejecting and lampooning what he perceives to be the retrograde dualistic metaphysics of Paul. It suggests that Plato's dualistic metaphysic is worked into a model of complex material immanence, whereas Paul is simply expelled as a purveyor of a Platonism for the masses, a thinker of “the veil.” Finally, it analyzes the New Testament book of Acts' narrative appropriation of Paulinism and the eventual apparatus of a Platonism for the masses.
Ward Blanton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166911
- eISBN:
- 9780231536455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166911.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter considers Saint Paul as an important figure with which to wrestle at a very specific philosophical moment, a moment in an unfolding ontology Michel Foucault does not resist calling an ...
More
This chapter considers Saint Paul as an important figure with which to wrestle at a very specific philosophical moment, a moment in an unfolding ontology Michel Foucault does not resist calling an opening of and toward a “nihilism.” It compares Foucault's philosophical immanence with that of Gilles Deleuze and discusses messianism through a very particular sort of philosophical or theoretical aperture, along with some of the dimensions of this aperture as it operates within important parts of Foucault's work. It explains how, in Discipline and Punish, Foucault articulates the singularity of the presentation and explanation of power relations. For Foucault, an emergence of a logic of singularity was the essential distinguishing mark between his nineteenth-century “modernity,” with its emergent biopower, and a “prehistory” as the nonmodern. The chapter also discusses the utter loss of a site of emancipation and a paradoxical explosion of new life within the context of Paulinism, along with the political problematic of agency and liberation within Foucauldian immanence in relation to the Paulinist paradoxes, perverse inversions of value, and the hollowing out of power for the sake of rogue agencies.Less
This chapter considers Saint Paul as an important figure with which to wrestle at a very specific philosophical moment, a moment in an unfolding ontology Michel Foucault does not resist calling an opening of and toward a “nihilism.” It compares Foucault's philosophical immanence with that of Gilles Deleuze and discusses messianism through a very particular sort of philosophical or theoretical aperture, along with some of the dimensions of this aperture as it operates within important parts of Foucault's work. It explains how, in Discipline and Punish, Foucault articulates the singularity of the presentation and explanation of power relations. For Foucault, an emergence of a logic of singularity was the essential distinguishing mark between his nineteenth-century “modernity,” with its emergent biopower, and a “prehistory” as the nonmodern. The chapter also discusses the utter loss of a site of emancipation and a paradoxical explosion of new life within the context of Paulinism, along with the political problematic of agency and liberation within Foucauldian immanence in relation to the Paulinist paradoxes, perverse inversions of value, and the hollowing out of power for the sake of rogue agencies.
Robert B. Ekelund Jr. and Robert D. Tollison
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226200026
- eISBN:
- 9780226200040
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226200040.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter has three primary goals: (1) to initiate an integration of the economic theories of entrepreneurship and networking with sociological and historical analyses of the initial spread of ...
More
This chapter has three primary goals: (1) to initiate an integration of the economic theories of entrepreneurship and networking with sociological and historical analyses of the initial spread of Christianity; (2) to relate these developments to historical Christianity, and (3) to present some statistics showing how Saint Paul played an important role in this spread. It concludes that the early spread of Christianity resulted from the interplay between entrepreneurial activities and network effects spawned by the teachings of Paul to the Gentiles and through the Jewish Diaspora.Less
This chapter has three primary goals: (1) to initiate an integration of the economic theories of entrepreneurship and networking with sociological and historical analyses of the initial spread of Christianity; (2) to relate these developments to historical Christianity, and (3) to present some statistics showing how Saint Paul played an important role in this spread. It concludes that the early spread of Christianity resulted from the interplay between entrepreneurial activities and network effects spawned by the teachings of Paul to the Gentiles and through the Jewish Diaspora.
Ward Blanton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166911
- eISBN:
- 9780231536455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166911.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter examines a moment in earlier materialist philosophy in relation to Saint Paul, namely, Louis Althusser's step toward an “aleatory materialism.” It considers—by way of the Paulinism of ...
More
This chapter examines a moment in earlier materialist philosophy in relation to Saint Paul, namely, Louis Althusser's step toward an “aleatory materialism.” It considers—by way of the Paulinism of Althusser's intellectual ally Stanislas Breton—how we could understand Paul and the vexing political problem of singular, immanent enjoyment. It places Pauline klēsis at the center of the “underground current” of materialism and Jacques Derrida's dogmatic repetition of Friedrich Nietzsche. It argues that in repeating Nietzsche, Derrida effectively leaves the real issue—the excess of phenomenal immanence that disturbs everyday life—outside his readerly frame. This, in turn, causes him to repeat tales of a mistakenly imagined two-tiered metaphysics or ontotheological Paulinism, which helps neither a “religion” that remains undisturbed in an imagined world of private, identitarian ownership nor a new materialism which continues to imagine that the archive of “religion” must be proscribed, prohibited as off limits to the life of thought.Less
This chapter examines a moment in earlier materialist philosophy in relation to Saint Paul, namely, Louis Althusser's step toward an “aleatory materialism.” It considers—by way of the Paulinism of Althusser's intellectual ally Stanislas Breton—how we could understand Paul and the vexing political problem of singular, immanent enjoyment. It places Pauline klēsis at the center of the “underground current” of materialism and Jacques Derrida's dogmatic repetition of Friedrich Nietzsche. It argues that in repeating Nietzsche, Derrida effectively leaves the real issue—the excess of phenomenal immanence that disturbs everyday life—outside his readerly frame. This, in turn, causes him to repeat tales of a mistakenly imagined two-tiered metaphysics or ontotheological Paulinism, which helps neither a “religion” that remains undisturbed in an imagined world of private, identitarian ownership nor a new materialism which continues to imagine that the archive of “religion” must be proscribed, prohibited as off limits to the life of thought.
Ward Blanton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166911
- eISBN:
- 9780231536455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166911.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter examines the Paulinism of Stanislas Breton in relation to the implicit turn toward aleatory materialism in Louis Althusser. It considers Breton's philosophical encounter with Saint Paul ...
More
This chapter examines the Paulinism of Stanislas Breton in relation to the implicit turn toward aleatory materialism in Louis Althusser. It considers Breton's philosophical encounter with Saint Paul in order to understand the fundamental paradox of recent readings of the apostle: that he would stand in as perhaps the best indication, the shortest pathway, to a theory of subjectivity that is avowedly materialist. Breton's reading allows us to feel the rhythms of Althusserian notions of ideology in Paulinist conceptions of predestination. He also invites us to intuit a form of Pauline sovereignty and Paulinist allegory in Althusserian notions of ideology. Wiring all these links back into his construction of Paul, readers of Paulinist texts of predestination and mysticism are therefore led to the heart of a logic in which, as Meister Eckhart had it, “the being (of things) is the verb by which God speaks all things in speaking to them,” or, even, “(the creatures) are the adverb of the Verb”.Less
This chapter examines the Paulinism of Stanislas Breton in relation to the implicit turn toward aleatory materialism in Louis Althusser. It considers Breton's philosophical encounter with Saint Paul in order to understand the fundamental paradox of recent readings of the apostle: that he would stand in as perhaps the best indication, the shortest pathway, to a theory of subjectivity that is avowedly materialist. Breton's reading allows us to feel the rhythms of Althusserian notions of ideology in Paulinist conceptions of predestination. He also invites us to intuit a form of Pauline sovereignty and Paulinist allegory in Althusserian notions of ideology. Wiring all these links back into his construction of Paul, readers of Paulinist texts of predestination and mysticism are therefore led to the heart of a logic in which, as Meister Eckhart had it, “the being (of things) is the verb by which God speaks all things in speaking to them,” or, even, “(the creatures) are the adverb of the Verb”.
Ward Blanton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166911
- eISBN:
- 9780231536455
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166911.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter argues that Michel Foucault missed a chance for a subversive genealogical encounter with Saint Paul. It describes Paul as the parrhesiast of experimental finitude in relation to care of ...
More
This chapter argues that Michel Foucault missed a chance for a subversive genealogical encounter with Saint Paul. It describes Paul as the parrhesiast of experimental finitude in relation to care of the self and Christian metaphysics and compares him with the Greco-Roman philosophers—those peddlers of oddly paradoxical “spiritual exercises.” It examines historiographical traditionalism within Foucault's work and his failure to elucidate Paul in relation to the Hellenistic philosophers at the conclusion to the third volume of The History of Sexuality. It also discusses Foucault's assumption that the “religion” of Paulinism constitutes a difference that forecloses real comparative analysis, Paulinism being consigned to becoming the founder of a form of moral system in Christianity whose inventive machinations will engender a “self” constituted by its being turned against itself, at once constitutively guilty, fallen, and also profoundly normalized by the universalization of its underlying metaphysical narrative. Finally, it explores Theodore Zahn's Christian historiographical conservatism.Less
This chapter argues that Michel Foucault missed a chance for a subversive genealogical encounter with Saint Paul. It describes Paul as the parrhesiast of experimental finitude in relation to care of the self and Christian metaphysics and compares him with the Greco-Roman philosophers—those peddlers of oddly paradoxical “spiritual exercises.” It examines historiographical traditionalism within Foucault's work and his failure to elucidate Paul in relation to the Hellenistic philosophers at the conclusion to the third volume of The History of Sexuality. It also discusses Foucault's assumption that the “religion” of Paulinism constitutes a difference that forecloses real comparative analysis, Paulinism being consigned to becoming the founder of a form of moral system in Christianity whose inventive machinations will engender a “self” constituted by its being turned against itself, at once constitutively guilty, fallen, and also profoundly normalized by the universalization of its underlying metaphysical narrative. Finally, it explores Theodore Zahn's Christian historiographical conservatism.
James Kuzner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823269938
- eISBN:
- 9780823269976
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823269938.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
The chapter considers the ethical consequences of epistemological weakness in The Winter’s Tale. The chapter does so by examining faith in the play, with focus on what sort of law most merits ...
More
The chapter considers the ethical consequences of epistemological weakness in The Winter’s Tale. The chapter does so by examining faith in the play, with focus on what sort of law most merits faithful submission. I trace Shakespeare’s inquiry into how Leontes can be king once he loses faith in himself and must instead rule with humility. When he does, Leontes must live not above law but under it; the question is which kind of law. Shakespeare explores two possible answers, ones also explored in Paul’s epistles, in Montaigne, and in radical theory’s recent impressions of Paul. Leontes’s first option is to submit to a law of works, to a system of injunctions and prohibitions. His other, quite different option is submission to a law of faith neither normative nor juridical. Shakespeare entertains both possibilities but sees greater virtue in the law of faith, in law that presumes—and asks that all subjects embrace—intense epistemological weakness.Less
The chapter considers the ethical consequences of epistemological weakness in The Winter’s Tale. The chapter does so by examining faith in the play, with focus on what sort of law most merits faithful submission. I trace Shakespeare’s inquiry into how Leontes can be king once he loses faith in himself and must instead rule with humility. When he does, Leontes must live not above law but under it; the question is which kind of law. Shakespeare explores two possible answers, ones also explored in Paul’s epistles, in Montaigne, and in radical theory’s recent impressions of Paul. Leontes’s first option is to submit to a law of works, to a system of injunctions and prohibitions. His other, quite different option is submission to a law of faith neither normative nor juridical. Shakespeare entertains both possibilities but sees greater virtue in the law of faith, in law that presumes—and asks that all subjects embrace—intense epistemological weakness.
Charles M. Stang
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230815
- eISBN:
- 9780823235087
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230815.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter traces Saint Paul's influence on Dionysius the Areopagite's “apophatic anthropology” and Christology. It offers a brief review of the Dionysian universe, ...
More
This chapter traces Saint Paul's influence on Dionysius the Areopagite's “apophatic anthropology” and Christology. It offers a brief review of the Dionysian universe, giving special attention to the themes of body and creation, as well as the question of Paul's influence on Dionysius' “apophatic anthropology” and his corresponding Christology. It also argues that writing under a pseudonym is integral to the aims of the corpus. Finally, the chapter ponders whether and how this practice of writing stands outside the purview of the celestial and ecclesiastical hierarchies and thereby leaves open the possibility that one might access deifying union with the unknown God in ways other than those permitted by the hierarchies.Less
This chapter traces Saint Paul's influence on Dionysius the Areopagite's “apophatic anthropology” and Christology. It offers a brief review of the Dionysian universe, giving special attention to the themes of body and creation, as well as the question of Paul's influence on Dionysius' “apophatic anthropology” and his corresponding Christology. It also argues that writing under a pseudonym is integral to the aims of the corpus. Finally, the chapter ponders whether and how this practice of writing stands outside the purview of the celestial and ecclesiastical hierarchies and thereby leaves open the possibility that one might access deifying union with the unknown God in ways other than those permitted by the hierarchies.
