Benjamin’s relationship to theological matters has been less observed than it should. Walter Benjamin and Theology brings together some of the world’s most renowned experts to reassess the stake theology has in Benjamin’s writings, aiming for nothing less than the beginning of a new phase in Anglophone Benjamin scholarship.

Preface Introduction Colby Dickinson and Stephane Symons Metaphysics of Transience, Natural and Supernatural Life, Apokatastasis Benjamin's Messianic Metaphysics of Transience Annika Thiem Completion Instead of Revelation: Toward the "Theological-Political Fragment" Peter Fenves Fidelity, Love, Eros: Benjamin's Bi-referential Concept of Life as Developed in "Goethe's Elective Affinities" Sigrid Weigel The Will to Apokatastasis: Media, Experience, and Eschatology in Walter Benjamin's Late Theological Politics Michael W. Jennings Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Influences Walter Benjamin's Jewishness Howard Eiland Benjamin's Natural Theology Howard Caygill Walter Benjamin: A Modern Marcionite? Jacob Taubes Seminar Notes: Walter Benjamin: Theses on the Philosophy of History Jacob Taubes Dislocated Messianism: Modernity, Marxism, and Violence On Benjamin's Baudelaire Giorgio Agamben On Vanishing and Fulfillment Eli Friedlander Rhythms of the Living: Conditions of Critique: On Judith Butler's Reading of Walter Benjamin's "Critique of Violence" Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky One Time Traverses Another: Benjamin's Theological-Political Fragment Judith Butler On Reading Walter Benjamin-From a Christian Perspective Hille Haker List of Contributors Index

Ours is an age of revivified political religion, and many have come to feel that to understand the current troubles the conventional liberal oppositions—between reason and unreason, secularism and religion—no longer suffice. Even as we resist the authoritarian strains of religion, the question therefore arises as to whether we must adopt a more dialectical search for critical instruction within the realm of the theological itself. For such a task the thought of Walter Benjamin offers an important resource. Transposing theology into philosophy and philosophy back into theology with alchemical skill, his critical legacy continues to inspire novel reflections on a wide range of themes such as eschatology and apocalypse, messianism and transience, divine violence and divine hope. This excellent volume brings together essays by some of our most accomplished scholars to interrogate that legacy, providing crucial resource for all future discussion of these endlessly compelling themes.