The Fetish of Theology

By delving into the history of the fetish-object among both modern and contemporary commentators, this book highlights the fetish-object's role as a philosophical and religious concept of the highest significance. Historically, fetishes are implicated in specific struggles for sovereign (political) and/or religious (hierarchical) power, with their interwoven symbols defined as the primary location for transcendence in our world. This book defines the political consequences of fetish-objects within a western cultural, and primarily theological context through a comparative approach of various literatures on fetish-objectsanthropological to the psychological, Marxist to the theological. It reconceives of fetishes as a form of resistance to oppressive structures, something which motivated Christians themselves historically, and shaped our western understanding of the sacraments far more than has been acknowledged. Taking up this conversation likewise holds forth the possibility of reconceptualizing how fetish-objects and sacramental presences both speak profoundly to our late-modern selves.

Highlights the fetish-object's role as a philosophical and religious concept of the highest significance Pursues historical-genealogical insights concerning fetishism in order to destabilize common perceptions of both fetishes and sacramental-objects Explores the concept of the fetish-object through a variety of modern disciplines

Auteur

Colby Dickinson is an Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University, Chicago.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. A Genealogy of the Sacrament-Fetish Divide.- 3. Marx on Commodity and Capital Fetishism.- 4. Fetishism as Psychological Compensation for a Lack.- 5. Critical Theory and the Liberating Potential of the Fetish.- 6. Beyond Representation: Is There Nothing Outside the Fetish?.- 7. New Paths for the Theological and the Fetishistic.- 8. Conclusion.