Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization
A beautifully written exploration of religion’s role in a secular, modern politics, by an accomplished scholar of critical theory

Migrants in the Profane takes its title from an intriguing remark by Theodor W. Adorno, in which he summarized the meaning of Walter Benjamin’s image of a celebrated mechanical chess-playing Turk and its hidden religious animus: “Nothing of theological content will persist without being transformed; every content will have to put itself to the test of migrating in the realm of the secular, the profane.”

In this masterful book, Peter Gordon reflects on Adorno’s statement and asks an urgent question: Can religion offer any normative resources for modern political life, or does the appeal to religious concepts stand in conflict with the idea of modern politics as a domain free from religion’s influence? In answering this question, he explores the work of three of the Frankfurt School’s most esteemed thinkers: Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor W. Adorno. His illuminating analysis offers a highly original account of the intertwined histories of religion and secular modernity.
1136701258
Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization
A beautifully written exploration of religion’s role in a secular, modern politics, by an accomplished scholar of critical theory

Migrants in the Profane takes its title from an intriguing remark by Theodor W. Adorno, in which he summarized the meaning of Walter Benjamin’s image of a celebrated mechanical chess-playing Turk and its hidden religious animus: “Nothing of theological content will persist without being transformed; every content will have to put itself to the test of migrating in the realm of the secular, the profane.”

In this masterful book, Peter Gordon reflects on Adorno’s statement and asks an urgent question: Can religion offer any normative resources for modern political life, or does the appeal to religious concepts stand in conflict with the idea of modern politics as a domain free from religion’s influence? In answering this question, he explores the work of three of the Frankfurt School’s most esteemed thinkers: Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor W. Adorno. His illuminating analysis offers a highly original account of the intertwined histories of religion and secular modernity.
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Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization

Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization

by Peter E. Gordon
Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization

Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization

by Peter E. Gordon

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Overview

A beautifully written exploration of religion’s role in a secular, modern politics, by an accomplished scholar of critical theory

Migrants in the Profane takes its title from an intriguing remark by Theodor W. Adorno, in which he summarized the meaning of Walter Benjamin’s image of a celebrated mechanical chess-playing Turk and its hidden religious animus: “Nothing of theological content will persist without being transformed; every content will have to put itself to the test of migrating in the realm of the secular, the profane.”

In this masterful book, Peter Gordon reflects on Adorno’s statement and asks an urgent question: Can religion offer any normative resources for modern political life, or does the appeal to religious concepts stand in conflict with the idea of modern politics as a domain free from religion’s influence? In answering this question, he explores the work of three of the Frankfurt School’s most esteemed thinkers: Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor W. Adorno. His illuminating analysis offers a highly original account of the intertwined histories of religion and secular modernity.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300255591
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 11/24/2020
Series: The Franz Rosenzweig Lecture Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 192
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Peter E. Gordon is the Amabel B. James Professor of History and Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University.  He is the author of several books in modern European philosophy and social theory, including, most recently, Adorno and Existence.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction. Peregrina in Saeculo 1

An Elective Affinity 2

Migration and Modernity 9

A Critical Inheritance 13

1 Benjamin; or, The Ambivalence of Secularization 20

A Secular Miracle 22

Benjamin's Turk 25

The Religious Secret 32

Trauerspiel, History, Salvation 36

Aesthetics and the Aura 40

Illuminations Sacred and Profane 47

The Backward Glance 51

A Theological-Political Predicament 55

Secularization and Indecision 59

2 Horkheimer; or, The Longing for the Wholly Other 64

Between Schopenhauer and Marx 69

A Dialectic of Religion 72

The Weberian Background 77

Judaism and Enlightenment 79

A Divine Return 89

3 Adorno; or, Negative Dialectics as Negative Theology 96

A Migrant in the Profane 104

Hegelianism Without Closure 113

The Persistence of Negativity 117

From Kabbalah to Enlightenment 121

Negative Dialectics as Negative Theology? 129

A Last Rejoinder 137

Conclusion. Dialectics and Disenchantment 143

Notes 157

Index 183

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