Criticism of Heaven ― On Marxism and Theology

Marxism and religion are not rivers at opposite sides of the world, and thinkers in both have commented on the other substantially. The richness of this material notwithstanding, few commentators have taken time to explore the theological writings of such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Louis Althusser, Henri Lefebvre, Antonio Gramsci, Terry Eagleton, Slajov Zizek and Theodor Adorno. Boer (comparative literature and cultural studies, Monash U.), in some cases for the first time, examines the ways these thinkers use theology and how their theological writings relate to their work in Marxism. He sorts the above into biblical Marxists, Catholic Marxists and Protestant Marxists, commenting on Bloch's use of class conflict as a hermeneutical device, on Benjamin's use of the Bible as myth, and Lathusser's ecclesiastical form, Lefebvre's approach to heresy, Gramsci's ecumenism, Eagleton's apostasy, Zizek's conversion, and Adorno's vacillation. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Roland Boer, Ph.D. (1993) in Biblical Studies, McGill University, is Reader in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Monash University, Melbourne. He has published extensively in biblical studies, Marxism, postcolonism, cultural studies, literary theory and political theory, including Marxist Criticism of the Bible (Continuum 2003).