In Slavoj Žižek’s
On Belief, he further develops ideas which he introduced in his previous book on religion,
The Fragile Absolute. Žižek begins, in his Introduction, by indicating that
On Beliefwill show why leftists today should endorse a materialist version of Christianity. This reinscription of Christianity will displace the “original” and put it to work, fulfilling its unrealized, radical-emancipatory potential. Žižek shows how St Paul already performed such a displacement and reinscription, just as Lenin did with Marxism, and Jacques Lacan did with Freudian psychoanalysis (
On Beliefp. 2f.). Thus the first, most basic idea to grasp in order to understand this book, is that Žižek is not talking about Christianity as it is, but as it might be. He evokes the subversive…
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Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "On Belief". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 June 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23500, accessed 23 November 2024.]
