Alain Badiou's book 'Saint Paul - The Foundations of Universalism' is, like Zizek's work, a cheeky attempt to recover the genius of Paul for the 21st century.In brief, his thesis is that Paul was able to combine the notion of truth with the subjectivity of the inward experience in a remarkable way:
...Paul himself teaches us that it is not the signs of power that count, nor exemplary lives, but what a conviction is capable of, here, now, and forever. p. 30
Badiou reads Paul's lettes as 'interventions' - that is, they are radically situational, militant documents, more Lenin than Marx, more Wittgenstein than Russell (more Luther than Calvin, I would add.) Paul is an 'antiphilosopher', propounding a 'speech of rupture, and writing ensues when necessary.' p. 31 His is the thought of event and conviction rather than Law or Logos.
Paul operates out of an inward, subjective but nonetheless actual truth, the truth of his conversion. This kind of truth has little time for outward customs, which a merely limp enactments incapable of really mirroring or capturing or expressing the inner conviction.
7 comments:
Interesting but what comes next? How does the driving conviction enter the public discourse without reverting to an alternative manifestation of "the two kingdoms?"
b-o-r-i-n-g - gees your up yourself - puffed up with knowledge.
Thanks for that courageous comment!
Well, anonymous, it is fairly easy to work out who you are from my stat counter... so, why not out yourself?
Speaking of Zizek, here's a summary of a talk he gave recently at Calvin College titled: "Only an Atheist Can Believe: Politics Between Fear and Trembling".
Byron thanks very much for posting the link to the Zizek talk. From now on when reading Zizek (at first or second hand) I think I should stick to his interactions with popular culture, because that talk sounded very interesting. By contrast when he holds forth on topics more generally, I have found him insufferable. I know this is a Two Cultures problem to some extent, which is why I persist ... but anyway, I now have a good example of what I should persist with.
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