The work of Paul Tillich and Slavoj Zizek criss-cross in a number of fascinating ways. While Tillich rightly passes as a theist, and Zizek rightly passes as an atheist, there is an atheistic dimension in the work of the former and a theistic dimension in the work of the latter. In addition to this, Tillich’s theological vocation is profoundly philosophical, while Zizek’s philosophical project has a deeply theological core. Both draw from similar intellectual sources (German Idealism, Psychoanalysis, Marxism), both wrestle with the nature of desire (Ultimate Concern, Drive) and both offer a reading of true religion as the revelation of a type of quantum indeterminacy at the heart of reality.
In this seminar, I will draw out the ways in which Tillich and Zizek orbit around a similar constellation of questions. Once we have seen how their work is complimentary in many ways, I’ll turn my attention to their differences regarding the ultimate aim of religion and the nature of salvation, or the cure.
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PREVIOUS PYROSEMINARS INCLUDE:
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Beyond Belief | Christianity and Ideology Critique
The Alien from Inner Space | Sin and Prometheus
On Love | The Unwanted Gift of Nothing
Embracing Failure | On Not Getting what you Want
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The Tech of Pyrotheology | Decentering Practices
Freedom from Meaning | Drive, Grace, the Absurd
The Last Guru | On Fantasy and Transference
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Joined by Lack | The Ontic and the Metaphysical
Confronting the Holy | Whole or Hole
Losing the Lost Object | On Conversion
On Envy and Jealousy | Girard and Christology
Deranged Animal | Desire, Drive and The Thing
The Meaning in Life | Drive and the Transcendental
Alienation Times Two | Traversing the Fantasy
God Forsaking God | Conversion, Forgiveness, Joy
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Is God Dead | The Event of Radical Theology
Mapping Pyrotheology | Returning to the Start
Problem or Symptom | The Zizek/Peterson Debate
The Self-Castration of God | Authority, Freedom, Kenosis
The Magic Trick of Christianity | Pledge, Turn and Prestige
Identical Wines | Salvation and Object a
A Contingent Gristle of the Real | Joker and Divine Violence
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The Politics of Difference | Cultural Marxism or Cultural Capitalism