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Zizek and Theology (Philosophy & Theology)

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Kotsko takes the reader on a tour of Zizek's thought from his first work published in English up through The Parallax View, showing the progression of his thought towards a theological expression of his project. In the closing he briefly brings Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thomas J. Alitzer into his exposition to give examples of contemporary theological expressions that provide a clearer path into theological inquiry and discussion.

This is a very accessible book, even for someone like me without any formal credentials in the humanities. I am no scholar but a curious onlooker trying to figure out and deal with some of Zizek's theological ideas; I like to read theory to escape the dreariness of studying physics and to broaden my mind. The point is, especially to any that wandered over here from Peter Rollins' blog, that this book is a challenging but very clear way in to Zizek's work.

I will definitely read this book again.

This book is an important addition to anyone's Zizek library as well as a very solid "introductory" work for anyone wanting to get in on the conversation. Hat's off to Kotsko for writing this fine book!

Since the writing of The Parallax View it's now a good time to take stock of Zizek's project and how it has evolved. Kotsko's book is "given over to a general overview of Zizek's thought from The Sublime Object of Ideology [Zizek's inaugural English language work] to The Parallax View, with a special focus on understanding and contextualizing his turn to theology within the trajectory of his work" (p. 3). Zizek and Theology does an excellent job of providing exactly that. The book takes Zizek seriously as a philosopher of subjectivity, ethics and political theory in his own right, thus focusing less on Zizek's cultural analysis and ideology critique. At the same time, however, the book does not assume too much background knowledge in getting the reader up to speed on Zizek's most important ideas (Kotsko's breaking a "taboo" and periodizing Zizek's thought is very helpful). And for those already quite familiar with Zizek, the book gives a useful review and summarization of his main ideas; for example I found the chapter on Ideology Critique to be very helpful in illuminating some of Zizek's early ideas on ideology (if one were to "merely" take away from all this an understanding of how to think about ideology, e.g. what Zizek adds to Althusser, the idea of cynical reason, etc., that, in itself, would already be quite productive).

Of course the crux is: "what exactly Zizek's practice of a materialist theology entails, what brings him to theology, and what his work might mean for theologians" (p.2). The book, again, I believe, delivers on this, and helps the reader to get a grasp on Zizek's most developed notion of a materialist subjectivity, and what dialectical materialism means in its most rigorous formulation. For me, personally, the last part of the quote, "what his work might mean for theologians" is not a specific interest per se, but as a theory of materialist theology is central to Zizek's thinking, this book is certainly not only for theologians (or "theologists"), but for anyone interested in Zizek, ideology, subjectivity, and dialectical materialism.

Why is Zizek important today? Psychoanalysis (specifically the Slovenian Lacanians informed by German Idealism) with its materialist understanding of subjectivity and ideology is perhaps the most effective intervention in laying out the exact relation of the subject to power (i.e. the relation of the subject to authority, transference, the law, or, more specifically, global capital) via its theory of negativity and the real--something other branches of philosophy and nominalist-constructivist postmodern thought fail to do as thoroughly (and certainly fail to do on a materialist basis). Moreover, Zizek's conceptualization of materialist theology suggests a corresponding ethics and the hope of a non-ideological order (p. 125-126). In this way Zizek certainly is a continuation of Enlightenment thought and anyone who, like Kotsko, can provide a clear and concise approach to Zizek's work is doing a service to ethical thought and practice which is urgently needed in our present times.

I think the book also is a good companion to the works listed below:

The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics)

On the Psychotheology of Everyday Life: Reflections on Freud and Rosenzweig

Zizek's Ontology: A Transcendental Materialist Theory of Subjectivity (SPEP)

Adam Kotsko wrote this book while still finishing his PhD at Chicago Theological Seminary. It was the first book in the "X philosopher and Theology" series.

The book is a dense read if you are unfamiliar with or new-ish to some philosophical concerns of the 20th century (the Real, fantasy, psychoanalysis in general, etc). However, the amount of information dealt with is handled in a controllable way. Kotsko does a very good job of breaking down the concepts in the first half of the book, in order that he can expound on them in the second. This work serves either as a good introduction to Zizek's thought, or as a helpful source for someone needing help making the connections from his philosophy to his theology.
In the first half of the book, Kotsko breaks down Zizek into developmental periods within his thought. He does this not because he thinks it is the best possible way to interpret Zizek, but because it is an easy access point to highlight why Zizek makes a necessary turn towards the theological. He explains concepts that are important to Zizek's work and is very good about giving practical examples for how this concepts play themselves out.

In the following half, the issues and their implications are expanded, discussed, explained. Connections are made within Zizek's working traditions/subjects: marxism, psychoanalysis, protestantism, capitalism, subjectivity & ethics, and pop-culture. His thoughts are also clearly linked with his influences/contemporaries: Lacan, Derrida, Hegel, Badiou, Milbank, etc. Zizek's interest in the negative or the importance of something's absence within culture plays a big part in his theology and, I think, Kotsko does a good job of helping the reader not only understand Zizek's application of it, but allows the reader begin to do this on their own.

There seems to be little argument for or against any of Zizek's thoughts; this book serves more as a guide or an interpretation to the subject at hand rather than a progressional development of the author's own ideas. Which is a stance that seems appropriate when writing about someone who is still alive and who's thought is still evolving (Zizek has written more on theology since this books publication and has even quoted Altizer approvingly - Altizer is a connection Kotsko makes in the last chapter, but was someone Zizek had yet to bring up).

The author clearly has an active interest Zizek, which gives the book energy - something helpful when its topic is complicated. Kotsko simplifies Zizek's work without oversimplifying Zizek's thoughts. The book was a very good read, it has encouraged me to read more books in this series.

Previous reviews give a general overview of Kotsko's project, its importance for discerning Zizek's work, and its intersection with theology. I only add my reaction and questions to these reviews.

After reading Zizek's "Fragile Absolute," I realized I needed to learn more about Zizek's overall project to clarify that book. I was familiar with Hegel and Marx (two of three of Zizek's philosophical sources according to Kotsko), but I was less familiar with Lacan. To that end, Kotsko's first two chapters were very helpful for me. They give an overview of Zizek's work from the "Sublime Object of Ideology" to "The Indivisible Remainder." These chapters succinctly educate a novice on what Zizek is doing with Lacanian categories and how they illuminate the dynamics of the traditionally Hegelian-Marxist themes of ideology and subjectivity, which are central to Zizek's work.

Chapters 3 and 4 is where Kotsko lays out the meaning and trajectory of Zizek's theological turn. These chapters cover what is at stake in Zizek's wanderings from the "The Ticklish Subject" to "The Parallax View." Kotsko illuminates the importance of Badiou's concept of event and Paul's proto-universalism for Zizek in these chapters. He explains how Zizek critically appropriates these ideas into his own theorizing. In terms of Zizek's use for theology, Badiou helps connect the role of Christian experience in Zizek's theorizing of real subjectivity (both in freedom and inter-subjectivity) beyond the big Other and the dynamics of ideology. The dialectical path of this subjectivity necessarily follows Paul's passage, who understood his Christianity in light of its Jewishness. Kotsko shows how Zizek draws on Kierkegaard to theorize a political subjectivity that does not rescue, but works within the flaws of Marx's dialectical materialism and intersects Christianity and Marx, as well as contemporary neuroscience and geo-politics, in a way that is neither theocentric nor religious.

Understood through Kotsko's distillation, I can see the affinity of Zizek's dialectical thinking with both Bonhoeffer and Altizer (Chapter 5). Kotsko's theological reflection, here, is spot on. The questions I walk away with have more to do with how Lacan ultimately figures into the overall outcome of Zizek's philosophical dialectical theorizing. Indeed, Lacanian analysis opens up fascinating lines of inquiry for the dynamics of subjectivity and ideology. But, in the end, how much does Zizek's philosophical commitment to negativity, particularly as the `birth-place' of a dialectical materialism and subjectivity, substantially differ from the Marcuse's politics or Adorno's subjectivity? I'm not suggesting that good academic answers couldn't be given. But, I wonder if the passage through Lacanian categories does not ultimately lead Zizek to a similar place as major critical theorists before him who had little use for postivism or theology.