Notes 1 Introduction 1 . Göran Therborn, From Marxism to Post-Marxism? (London/New York: Verso, 2008), 130. 2 . Ibid., 131. 3 . Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Free Press, 1992). 4 . Karl Löwith, Meaning in History: The Theological Implications of the Philosophy of History (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949), 46. 5 . Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” in Illuminations , trans. Harry Zohn, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Schocken Books, 1969), 253. 6 . Carl Schmitt, Political Theology , trans. George Schwab (Cambridge/ London: The MIT Press, 1985), 36. 7 . Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory , 2nd ed. (London: Duckworth, 1985), 222. 8 . Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction , 2nd ed. (Malden, Mass./Oxford: Blackwells, 1996), 183. Cf. Eagleton, Criticism & Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory , new ed. (London/New York: Verso, 2006), and Eagleton, How to Read a Poem (Malden, Mass.: Blackwells, 2007). 9 . Eagleton, Literary Theory , 179. 10 . Slavoj Žižek, Living in the End Times (London/New York: Verso, 2010), xiii. 11 . Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” in Selected Works , eds. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (New York: International Publishers, 1974), 30. 12 . Cornel West, The Ethical Dimension of Marxist Thought (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1995), 65. 13 . Cf. Jonathan Lear, Freud (New York/London: Routledge, 2005), 188f. 14 . Žižek, Living , xiv. 15 . Søren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Crumbs , ed. and trans. Alastair Hannay (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 174. 206 Notes 16 . Žižek, Living , xiv, n. 9. 17 . Cyril O’Regan, “Žižek and Milbank and the Hegelian Death of God,” in Modern Theology , 26:2 (2010), 278f. 18 . Sarah Kay, Žižek: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge/Malden: Polity, 2003), 16. 19 . Eagleton has not only written about, among others, William Shakespeare, Samuel Richardson, and Emily Brontë, but also a major study of the English novel, comprising a number of authors from the literary canon. See, above all, The English Novel: An Introduction (Malden, Mass./Oxford: Blackwells, 2005). 20 . See here, above all, Slavoj Žižek, The Indivisible Remainder: An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters (London/New York: Verso, 1996), 189–231; Žižek, The Parallax View (Cambridge/London: The MIT Press, 2006), 147–250. 21 . Roland Boer, Criticism of Heaven: On Marxism and Theology (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2009), 275–390; Clayton Crockett, Interstices of the Sublime: Theology and Psychoanalytic Theory (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007); Frederiek Depoortere, Christ in Postmodern Philosophy: Gianni Vattimo, René Girard and Slavoj Žižek (London/New York: T&T Clark, 2008), 92–143; Adam Kotsko, Žižek and Theology (London/New York: T&T Clark, 2008); John Milbank, “Materialism and Transcendence,” in Theology and the Political: The New Debate , eds. Creston Davis, John Milbank, and Slavoj Žižek (Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2005), 393–426; Milbank, “The Double Glory, or Paradox versus Dialectics: On Not Quite Agreeing with Slavoj Žižek,” in The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic? , ed. Creston Davis (Cambridge/London: The MIT Press, 2009), 110–233; Marcus Pound, Žižek: A (Very) Critical Introduction (Grand Rapids/Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2008); see also Pound, Theology, Psychoanalysis, Trauma (London: SCM, 2007); James Smith, Terry Eagleton: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008), 9–31, 140–167; Matthew Sharpe and Geoff Boucher, Žižek and Politics: A Critical Introduction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010), 205; Jayne Svenungsson, “Wrestling with Angels: Or How to Avoid Decisionist Messianic Romances,” in International Journal of Žižek Studies , 4:4 (2010), accessed March 30, 2011, URL: http://zizekstudies.org/index.php /ijzs/article/view/268/343. 22 . Terry Eagleton, The Gatekeeper: A Memoir (London: Penguin, 2003). 23 . Terry Eagleton and Matthew Beaumont, The Task of the Critic: Terry Eagleton in Dialogue (London/New York: Verso, 2009), 12. 24 . Terry Eagleton, After Theory (London: Penguin, 2004), ix. 25 . Private conversation with Denys Turner in Cambridge, March 12, 2003. 26 . Smith, Eagleton , 30. 27 . Eagleton and Beaumont, Task , 113. 28 . Ibid., 187, 277. 29 . Therborn, Marxism , 133; Eagleton and Beaumont, Task , 306. 30 . Cf. Eagleton and Beaumont, Task , 16, 50. Notes 207 31 . Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), xif. 32 . Terry Eagleton, Holy Terror (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), vi. 33 . Terry Eagleton, Reason , xii. Cf. Eagleton, After Theory , 33. 34 . Eagleton and Beaumont, Task , 86. 35 . Ibid., 306f. 36 . Eagleton, Holy Terror , 42. 37 . Eagleton, Reason , xi. 38 . Ibid. 39 . Eagleton and Beaumont, Task , 233. 40 . Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction , 2nd ed. (London/New York: Verso, 2007), xiif. 41 . Eagleton and Beaumont, Task , 270. 42 . Eagleton, Reason , 57. 43 . Ibid., 7, 8. 44 . Ibid., 169. 45 . Eagleton, After Theory, 80. 46 . Ibid. 47 . Ibid., 81. 48 . Ibid., 83. 49 . Eagleton, Reason , 167. 50 . Some biographical information can be gained from Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly, Conversations with Žižek (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004), 23–51. 51 . For Žižek’s most recent thoughts about democracy, see “From Democracy to Divine Violence,” in Democracy in What State? , trans. William McCuaig (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 100–120. 52 . Ernesto Laclau, “Structure, History, and the Political,” in Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left , eds. Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Slavoj Žižek (London/New York: Verso, 2000), 204. 53 . See here Adam Kirsch, “The Deadly Jester,” The New Republic , December 2 (2008); Kirsch, “Disputations: Still The Most Dangerous Philosopher In The West: A Reply to Slavoj Žižek,” The New Republic , January 7 (2009); Alan Johnson, “Ein bisschen Terror darf dabeisein: Zum Denken von Slavoj Žižek,” Merkur , no. 4 (2010): 299–307. Žižek’s answer to Kirsch’s first article is published as “Disputations: Who Are You Calling Anti-Semitic?,” The New Republic , January 7 (2009). It is not my intention of defending Žižek in this book, but let me here only state that my own view is that some of this critique seems to be misguided, as it does not try to understand, for example, his pronouncements about violence against the background of his philosophy. At the same time, some of Žižek’s pronouncements are trou- bling, to say the least. 54 . Such a turn is suggested by Sharpe and Boucher, Žižek and Politics , 196. 55 . Žižek and Daly, Conversations , 162. Cf. Slavoj Žižek, Violence: Six Sideways Reflections (London: Profile Books, 2008), 112–118. 208 Notes 56 . Žižek, Violence , 113. 57 . Slavoj Žižek, The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity (Cambridge/London: The MIT Press, 2003), 171. 58 . Cf. G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006). 59 . Žižek, Puppet , 6. 60 . Slavoj Žižek, On Belief: Thinking in Action (London/New York: Routledge, 2001), 1. 61 . Žižek, Living , x. 62 . Žižek, On Belief , 13. 63 . Slavoj Žižek, Did Somebody Say Totalitiarianism? Five Interventions in the (Mis)Use of a Notion (London/New York: Verso, 2001), 181f. 64 . Marx, “Feuerbach,” 29. 65 . Slavoj Žižek, The Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For? (London/New York: Verso, 2000), 2. 2 Ideology as Idolatry or Vice Versa 1 . Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction (London/New York: Verso, 1991), xiii. 2 . Denys Turner, Marxism and Christianity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), 112. 3 . Turner, Marxism , 227. 4 . Nicholas Lash, A Matter of Hope: A Theologian’s Reflections on the Thought of Karl Marx (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), 132. 5 . Cf. Ernesto Laclau, ”On the Names of God,” in Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World , ed. Hent de Vries and Lawrence Sullivan (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006). 6 . Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” in Selected Works , eds. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (New York: International Publishers, 1974), 38. 7 . Eagleton, Ideology , 106. 8 . Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German Ideology: Parts I & III , ed. R. Pascal (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1938), 14, 30. Cf. Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right,” ed. Joseph O’Malley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 131 and “Theses on Feuerbach,” in Selected Works , eds. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (New York: International Publishers, 1974), 29. 9 . Slavoj Žižek, The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity (London: The MIT Press, 2003), 125. 10 . Eagleton, Ideology , xii. 11 . Ibid., 10–17. 12 . Ibid., xiv. 13 . Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction , 2nd ed. (London/New York: Verso, 2007), xi. Notes 209 14 . Ibid., xxi. 15 . Ibid., xxiii. 16 . Ibid. 17 . Ibid., 64. 18 . Ibid., 8f. 19 . Ibid., 10. 20 . Terry Eagleton, The Body as Language: Outline of a “New Left” Theology (London/Sydney: Sheed and Ward, 1970); Eagleton, Why Marx Was Right (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2011), 128–159. 21 . Richard J. Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991). 22 . Terry Eagleton, After Theory (London: Penguin, 2004), 55. 23 . Ibid., 57. 24 . Bernstein, Beyond , 18, cf. 16–25. 25 .