Synopses & Reviews
The worlds eyes are on Latin America as a place of radical political inspiration, offering alternatives to the neoliberal model.
Religion Without Redemption examines the history of religious and political ideas in Latin America, in order to show how and why the continents politics and economics work as they do.
Martínez Andrade focuses on the central role of religion in the region and how it influences peoples interaction with changes in modern economics. Capitalism in Latin America, Martínez Andrade argues, has taken on religious characteristics, with places of worshipshopping malls and department storesas well as its own prophets. This form of cultural religion is often contradictory in surprising ways: not only does it legitimate oppression, it can also be a powerful source of rebellion, unveiling a subversive side to the status quo. Religion Without Redemption advances the ideas of liberation theory, and challenges the provincialism to which many Latin American thinkers are usually consigned.
Review
"His writing is bold, confident and contentious." Julian Baggini The Philosopher's Magazine The MIT Press
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"Zizek is the first Marxist to write theology in a post-marxist, post-secular age." Eugene McCarraher In These Times The MIT Press
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"A witty, informative trip... both erudite and accessible...." Rick Mitchell Leonardo Reviews The MIT Press
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"Slavoj Zizek may have the strongest 'brand identity'... of any cultural theorist now in the marketplace of ideas." Scott McLemee The Chronicle of Higher Education The MIT Press
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"Quite possibly the most entertaining philosopher working today. Zizek knows how to think the unthinkable." Jori Finkel Village Voice The MIT Press
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"Quite possibly the most entertaining philosopher working today. Zizek knows how to think the unthinkable."
-- Jori Finkel, Village Voice
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" The Puppet and the Dwarf is Zizek"s most compelling and passionate writing on Christianity to date." Erik Davis Bookforum The MIT Press
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"... Zizek mixes Pauline speculations with analyses of everything from G. K. Chesterton to chocolate eggs." Terry Eagleton TLS The MIT Press
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"His writing is bold, confident and contentious."
— Julian Baggini, The Philosopher's Magazine
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andquot;Zizek rarely fails to entertain....andquot;
-- Charles Seymour, Library Journal
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"Zizek rarely fails to entertain...." Charles Seymour Library Journal The MIT Press
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With this book Žižek consolidates his reputation as the foremost intellectual gadfly of the postmodern cosmopolis. For anyone interested in the contemporary vogue of the 'theological turn' or theories of 'religion without God,' The Puppet and the Dwarf is indispensable reading...If Socrates underwent a ten-year analysis with Jacques Lacan, the result would be Slavoj Žižek. The MIT Press
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A witty, informative trip...both erudite and accessible... Richard Wolin, Distinguished Professor of History and Comparative Literature, the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Synopsis
One of our most daring intellectuals offers a Lacanian interpretation of religion, finding that early Christianity was the first revolutionary collective.
Slavoj Zizek has been called "an academic rock star" and "the wild man of theory"; his writing mixes astonishing erudition and references to pop culture in order to dissect current intellectual pieties. In The Puppet and the Dwarf he offers a close reading of today's religious constellation from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He critically confronts both predominant versions of today's spirituality -- New Age gnosticism and deconstructionist-Levinasian Judaism -- and then tries to redeem the "materialist" kernel of Christianity. His reading of Christianity is explicitly political, discerning in the Pauline community of believers the first version of a revolutionary collective. Since today even advocates of Enlightenment like Jurgen Habermas acknowledge that a religious vision is needed to ground our ethical and political stance in a "postsecular" age, this book -- with a stance that is clearly materialist and at the same time indebted to the core of the Christian legacy -- is certain to stir controversy.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-[188]).
Synopsis
Slavoj Žižek has been called "an academic rock star" and "the wild man of theory"; his writing mixes astonishing erudition and references to pop culture in order to dissect current intellectual pieties. In The Puppet and the Dwarf he offers a close reading of today's religious constellation from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He critically confronts both predominant versions of today's spirituality -- New Age gnosticism and deconstructionist-Levinasian Judaism -- and then tries to redeem the "materialist" kernel of Christianity. His reading of Christianity is explicitly political, discerning in the Pauline community of believers the first version of a revolutionary collective. Since today even advocates of Enlightenment like Jurgen Habermas acknowledge that a religious vision is needed to ground our ethical and political stance in a "postsecular" age, this book -- with a stance that is clearly materialist and at the same time indebted to the core of the Christian legacy -- is certain to stir controversy.
Synopsis
One of our most daring intellectuals offers a Lacanian interpretation of religion, finding that early Christianity was the first revolutionary collective.
Synopsis
Slavoj Zizek has been called andquot;an academic rock starandquot; and andquot;the wild man of theoryandquot;; his writing mixes astonishing erudition and references to pop culture in order to dissect current intellectual pieties. In The Puppet and the Dwarf he offers a close reading of today's religious constellation from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He critically confronts both predominant versions of today's spirituality--New Age gnosticism and deconstructionist-Levinasian Judaism--and then tries to redeem the andquot;materialistandquot; kernel of Christianity. His reading of Christianity is explicitly political, discerning in the Pauline community of believers the first version of a revolutionary collective. Since today even advocates of Enlightenment like Jurgen Habermas acknowledge that a religious vision is needed to ground our ethical and political stance in a andquot;postsecularandquot; age, this book--with a stance that is clearly materialist and at the same time indebted to the core of the Christian legacy--is certain to stir controversy.
Synopsis
Slavoj Zizek has been called an academic rock star and the wild man of theory; his writing mixes astonishing erudition and references to pop culture in order to dissect current intellectual pieties. In
About the Author
Slavoj Žižek is a philosopher and cultural critic. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture, The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity, The Parallax View, and (with John Milbank) The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialect, these four published by the MIT Press.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Michael Löwy
Prologue
Part One: Entelechies And Cathedrals
1: Civilising Paradigms And Colonial Atavisms: Power And Social Sciences
2: The Shopping Mall As The Paradigmatic Figure Of Necolonial Discourse. Racism And Power In Latin America.
Part Two: Utopia And Liberation
3: The Portentous Eclosion Of The Principle Of Hope: Ernst Bloch And Liberation
4: The Gun Powder Of The Dwarf: Unearthly Reflections On Contemporary Political Philosophy
5: Tendencies And Latencies Of Liberation Theology In The Twenty-First Century
Notes
Bibliography
Index