Walter Benjamin and Theology

Ours is an age of revivified political religion, and many have come to feel that to understand the current troubles the conventional liberal oppositions—between reason and unreason, secularism and religion—no longer suffice. Even as we resist the authoritarian strains of religion, the question therefore arises as to whether we must adopt a more dialectical search for critical instruction within the realm of the theological itself. For such a task the thought of Walter Benjamin offers an important resource. Transposing theology into philosophy and philosophy back into theology with alchemical skill, his critical legacy continues to inspire novel reflections on a wide range of themes such as eschatology and apocalypse, messianism and transience, divine violence and divine hope. This excellent volume brings together essays by some of our most accomplished scholars to interrogate that legacy, providing crucial resource for all future discussion of these endlessly compelling themes.—Peter E. Gordon, The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

This volume provides a worthwhile contribution to the ongoing conversation between Continental philosophy and theology, both for those interested in Benjamin’s work itself and for the broader conversations of which it has become a part.—Horizons: Journal of the College Theological Society

Dickinson and Symonds's important book makes clear some of the ways that engagement
with Benjamin might invigorate theology.

—Modern Theology