Abstract

CRUZ APONIUK, Juan. The Messianic Kingdom and the Hunchbacked Dwarf: A Commentary of the First Fragment of On the Concept of History. Tópicos (México) [online]. 2023, n.66, pp.187-227.  Epub June 19, 2023. ISSN 0188-6649.  https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v660.2153.

This paper explores the relationship between theology and philosophy through an analysis of the first fragment of Walter Benjamin’s On the Concept of History. Benjamin uses the allegory of an automaton that always wins at chess, but is secretly controlled by a dwarf, to illustrate how “historical materialism” depends on theology for its success. This paper explores Walter Benjamin’s concept of theology as a means of escaping totalitarianism. It analyzes various theological ideas, such as inversion, recapitulation, recollection, the hunchbacked dwarf, redemption, nihilism, pure violence, and unwritable life, as indicators of the messianic Kingdom. By examining these theological concepts, the paper sheds light on how the marxist idea of a classless society is a secularization of the messianic Kingdom.

Keywords : messianism; materialism; law; childhood.

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