Pauline Ugliness: Jacob Taubes and the Turn to Paul

In recent decades Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Žižek have shown the centrality of Paul to western political and philosophical thought and made the Apostle a central figure in left-wing discourses far removed from traditional theological circles. Yet the recovery of Paul beyond Christian theology owes a great deal to the writings of the Jewish rabbi and philosopher Jacob Taubes (1923–1987).

Pauline Ugliness shows how Paul became an effective tool for Taubes to position himself w...