The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity

by Mladen Dolar (Author), Mladen Dolar (Author), Zupancic (Author), Slavoj Zizek (Author), Alenka (Author)

New
Paperback
2003
$38.43

One of our most daring intellectuals offers a Lacanian interpretation of religion, finding that early Christianity was the first revolutionary collective. Slavoj Zizek has been called an academic rock star and the wild man of theory ; his writing mixes astonishing erudition and references to pop culture in order to dissect current intellectual pieties. In The Puppet and the Dwarf he offers a close reading of today's religious constellation from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He critically confronts both predominant versions of today's spirituality-New Age gnosticism and deconstructionist-Levinasian Judaism-and then tries to redeem the materialist kernel of Christianity. His reading of Christianity is explicitly political, discerning in the Pauline community of believers the first version of a revolutionary collective. Since today even advocates of Enlightenment like Jurgen Habermas acknowledge that a religious vision is needed to ground our ethical and political stance in a postsecular age, this book-with a stance that is clearly materialist and at the same time indebted to the core of the Christian legacy-is certain to stir controversy.

Synopsis

One of our most daring intellectuals offers a Lacanian interpretation of religion, finding that early Christianity was the first revolutionary collective. Slavoj Zizek has been called an academic rock star and the wild man of theory ; his writing mixes astonishing erudition and references to pop culture in order to dissect current intellectual pieties. In The Puppet and the Dwarf he offers a close reading of today's religious constellation from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He critically confronts both predominant versions of today's spirituality-New Age gnosticism and deconstructionist-Levinasian Judaism-and then tries to redeem the materialist kernel of Christianity. His reading of Christianity is explicitly political, discerning in the Pauline community of believers the first version of a revolutionary collective. Since today even advocates of Enlightenment like Jurgen Habermas acknowledge that a religious vision is needed to ground our ethical and political stance in a postsecular age, this book-with a stance that is clearly materialist and at the same time indebted to the core of the Christian legacy-is certain to stir controversy.

$38.43

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 196
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 03 Oct 2003
ISBN 10: 0262740257
ISBN 13: 9780262740258
Book Overview: With this book Zizek consolidates his reputation as the foremost intellectual gadfly of the postmodern cosmopolis. For anyone interested in the contemporary vogue of the 'theological turn' or theories of 'religion without God,' The Puppet and the Dwarf is indispensable reading...If Socrates underwent a ten-year analysis with Jacques Lacan, the result would be Slavoj Zizek. -- Richard Wolin, Distinguished Professor of History and Comparative Literature, the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Media Reviews

Zizekrarely fails to entertain... -Library Journal
A witty, informative trip...both erudite and accessible... -Rick Mitchell, Leonardo Reviews * Reviews *
His writing is bold, confident and contentious. -Julian Baggini, The Philosopher's Magazine * Reviews *
The Puppet and the Dwarf is Zizek's most compelling and passionate writing on Christianity to date. -Erik Davis, Bookforum * Reviews *
Quite possibly the most entertaining philosopher working today. Zizek knows how to think the unthinkable. -Jori Finkel, Village Voice * Reviews *
Slavoj Zizek may have the strongest 'brand identity'...of any cultural theorist now in the marketplace of ideas. -Scott McLemee, The Chronicle of Higher Education * Reviews *
Zizek is the first Marxist to write theology in a post-marxist, post-secular age. -Eugene McCarraher, In These Times * Reviews *
...Zizek mixes Pauline speculations with analyses of everything from G. K. Chesterton to chocolate eggs. -Terry Eagleton, TLS * Reviews *
Zizekrarely fails to entertain... -Library Journal * Reviews *

Author Bio

Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher and cultural critic, is Senior Researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, and International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture, The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity, The Parallax View, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic (with John Milbank), and Zizek's Jokes (Did you hear the one about Hegel and negation?), these five published by the MIT Press. Mladen Dolar taught for 20 years in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he now works as a Senior Research Fellow. He is the author of a number of books, most recently (with Slavoj Zizek) Opera's Second Death. Alenka Zupancic, a Slovenian psychoanalytic theorist and philosopher, teaches at the European Graduate School and is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and the Arts. She is the author of The Shortest Shadow: Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Two and The Odd One In: On Comedy, both in the Short Circuits series, published by the MIT Press. Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher and cultural critic, is Senior Researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, and International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London. He is the author of more than thirty books, including Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture, The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity, The Parallax View, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic (with John Milbank), and Zizek's Jokes (Did you hear the one about Hegel and negation?), these five published by the MIT Press.