Theopolitical-Economy
Christian Atheism (Pre-Course Series: 4)
The next Philosophy Portal course starts October 20th and focuses on the concept of Christian Atheism. The course will feature classes on German Idealism, Hegelo-Marxism, Nietzsche and Psychoanalysis, Altizer’s Gospel, Žižek’s Philosophy, and Rollins’ Theology. The course will also feature guest lectures from Slavoj Žižek, Peter Rollins, Barry Taylor, and Mark Gerard Murphy. To find out more, or to get involved, see: Christian Atheism.
The video below is part of pre-course material for the course on Christian Atheism:
In this video:
We focus on the ambiguous tension in thought of Karl Marx on the question of religion as both an expression and genuine protest against suffering as well as and opiate numbing the masses to social change
Emphasise the critique of conservative religion as an identification with present social relations as opposed to an emphasis on changing social relations with implications for the future of political economy
Develop the Marxist thesis on political-economy in capitalism as a social force of production that splits modern society into an antagonistic class war between the proletariat (labour power) and bourgeoisie (owners of production)
Develop the other side of Marxism in the thesis on human nature: that man’s central activity in the world is creative production and that this nature is unnecessarily thwarted from developing in capitalist modes of production
Explore the realities of actually existing 20th century communism in the Soviet Union as the expression of a political religion which imploded in the failure to adequately theorise the role of the state/leader and metaphysical necessity
Note: in the course itself, this pre-course material will not only be further developed, but also provide us with a foundation for further discussion.