Political Demonology by Faber Richard; Feiler Therese; Mayo Michael

Author:Faber, Richard; Feiler, Therese; Mayo, Michael [Faber, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781498201308
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2018-01-09T08:00:00+00:00

7. Meta-Enlightenment

I cannot elaborate here on the deeply moving words Bloch wrote on “the Bible of humanity,”152 which is much more than “the most important work of world literature”153—though it is indeed that, too. Yet I have to emphasize that he wrote all that under the the principled and emphatic imputation of biblical criticism; it was one of “the most exciting examples of human acuity” (A, 104). Nonetheless, it should also become a saving criticism154 in the way he exercises it, uniting itself with the criticism contained in the Bible itself, and hence in a manner superior to the “trivial” enlightenment. Bloch has no problem with so-called secularization, only it must not be “dull” (H, 1521).

He is vehemently in favor of profanization, and agreeingly he cites Friedrich Engels: “Before the existing social conditions could be attacked, they had to be stripped of their halo of sanctity” (H, 1528). Still, even Engel’s definition of materialism, which he shares in principle, finds Bloch’s assent: “the explanation of the world through itself,” and connected to this of course the rejection of “a heaven above, with a God as master: his case was closed not only scientifically, but by the critique of ideology he was filed away under ‘pre-history,’ which lasts until today, as he himself legitimized, sanctified the master-slave relation, the social heteronomy on earth. This way the subversive gets the last word against everything heteronomous, but also against the most useful illusion: the theocratic (from way above),” as Bloch approvingly recognizes. Still, he could hardly applaud the fact that for many “the role, the topos of religion” seemed “to be fully exhausted” (A, 20). He synthesizes—in his idiolect—the “warm and the cold current” in Marxism: “To see through history and its ideologies like a detective is part of . . . the cold current in Marxist thought, but the purpose that is sought, the distant, human-oriented goal of this seeing-through, is part of . . . the warm current of original Marxism, indeed undeniably it is part of the first, Christ-formed basic text on the ‘Kingdom of Freedom’” (A, 349–50). Moreover, which is not surprising in the least: both currents are meritorious and necessary. Or rather: one current is the corrective of the other.

Sub specie Marxism(-Leninism)—it is well known that Marx did not want to be “a Marxist”—the utopia that Engels prematurely considered overcome is to be revitalized, and within its frame, indeed as its Where-from and its Where-to, the “religion of Exodus and the Kingdom” must be revitalized as well. Or, to epitomize further: (Marxist) atheism has to be Christianized in a dialectical manner, whereby “dialectical” means not least that such a Christianization does not negate atheism, but rather presupposes it. Bloch’s concern is Christianity in atheism, but only because he always already starts from “Atheism in Christianity”: “Only an atheist can be a good Christian, only a Christian can be a good atheist” (A, 15).

We shall leave behind now the first part of the sentence by translating it into the final result: good Christianity presupposes the enlightenment, which includes atheism.

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