God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1609803698
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A brilliant dissection and reconstruction of the three major faith-based systems of belief in the world today, from one of the world's most articulate intellectuals, Slavoj Zizek, in conversation with Croatian philosopher Boris Gunjevic. In six chapters that describe Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in fresh ways using the tools of Hegelian and Lacanian analysis, God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse shows how each faith understands humanity and divinity--and how the differences between the faiths may be far stranger than they may at first seem.
Chapters include (by Zizek) (1) "Christianity Against Sacred," (2) "Glance into the Archives of Islam," (3) "Only Suffering God Can Save Us," (4) "Animal Gaze," (5) "For the Theologico-Political Suspension of the Ethical," (by Gunjevic) (1) "Mistagogy of Revolution," (2) "Virtues of Empire," (3) "Every Book Is Like Fortress," (4) "Radical Orthodoxy," (5) "Prayer and Wake."
something, the substantial Thing, behind the veil? If, following Nietzsche’s equation of truth and woman, we transpose the feminine veil into the veil which conceals the ultimate Truth, the true stakes of the Muslim veil become even clearer. Woman is a threat because she stands for the “undecidability” of truth, for a succession of veils beneath which there is no ultimate hidden core; by veiling her, we create the illusion that there is, beneath the veil, the feminine Truth—the horrible truth of
alms, rejects physical and racial particularities, undertakes pilgrimages. This should mean that every Muslim is aware of the nomadic dislike of all particular possessions in this world. This is what Muslims are like, says Hegel, resembling their prophet who is not above human frailties. And precisely as such Muhammad is a paradigmatic example for Muslim believers, as Hegel remarks. A prophet yet still a man, Muhammad succeeds with his powerful example and authority to legitimize radical
raiment and the fabric from which it is made and by it sees all that it conceals and thereby attains knowledge that remains inaccessible for those who did not enjoy awareness of this order.47 Here, along with Ibn Arabi, we can mention other Sufis who speak, as he does, of the stages of development and the ladders for beings such as Rumi and Attar, or they speak of the stations of elevation to God, such as with al Harawi for whom the perfect Sufi becomes a mirror of God’s attributes. Al Harawi
and disciplining practices straying into deviant forms of control. The Englishman is aware that there are groups of people who will approve of and support the first way in which orthodoxy is radicalized. He is also aware that there will be those who will protest against the first way yet embrace the second. However, according to him, this is the very reason why Radical Orthodoxy exists, and it will attract those rare and romantic souls who are convinced that such a double radicalism is both
intended for the disciples. It is well known that moments of nervousness or uncertainty are best “healed” by a sudden outburst of laughter at a pun or a joke. A well-tempered joke performed publicly can prompt a sudden shift of perspective that offers us completely new insight into a situation. This is just the sort of change that the disciples need in the predicament into which they have been thrust. De Certeau calls the parodical twist of Jesus’ street theater an everyday practice of