The Islamophobic Inheritance of the Resurrected Saint Paul: From F. C. Baur&apos;s Judeo-Christianity to the Event

Anya Topolski, null

doi:10.13169/reorient.2.2.0126

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The Islamophobic Inheritance of the Resurrected Saint Paul: From F. C. Baur's Judeo-Christianity to the Event

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Author(s): Anya Topolski

Publication date (Print): Spring 2017

Journal: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: antisemitism, islamophobia, Judeo-Christianity, orientalism, Paul, Žižek, Badiou, F. C. Baur

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Abstract

It is my aim to demonstrate how the nineteenth-century theologian F. C. Baur's influence reappears in the resurrected Paul which has a central role in Badiou and Žižek's respective projects. This essay begins with a sketch of the historical, theological, and political context of F. C. Baur's writings. In a nutshell, Baur's Hegelian-inspired reading of Paul relies on the explicit distinction between Pauline (or Gentile) Christianity and Judeo-Christianity. I then move to a selection of Badiou and Žižek's writings on Paul in order to establish Baur's considerable influence. This influence is most tangible in their accounts of Paul's pivotal role as the militant revolutionary figure that brought about the paradigmatic Truth-Event. While much has been said of both Badiou and Žižek's antisemitism, not enough attention has been paid to its islamophobic inheritance.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Anya Topolski

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): reorient

Title: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 20555601

ISSN (Electronic): 2055561X

Publication date (Print): Spring 2017

Volume: 2

Issue: 2

Pages: 126-145

Affiliations

Anya Topolski, Assistant Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Article

Publisher ID: reorient.2.2.0126

DOI: 10.13169/reorient.2.2.0126

SO-VID: 6075f44e-aab9-4a8c-8691-4fcc173dabe4

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History

References

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Badiou, A. (2002) Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil . London and New York: Verso.
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Badiou, A. (2005) Portées du mot “juif.” Paris: Lignes.
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Baur, F. C. (1875b) Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ: His Life and Work, His Epistles and His Doctrine. A Contribution to the Critical History of Primitive Christianity . London: Williams and Norgate.
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Agamben, G. (2000) Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive . New York: Zone Books.

[2] Anidjar, G. (2012) On the European question. Forum Bosnae . 55, 13–27.

[3] Asad, T. (2003) Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity . 1st ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

[4] Badiou, A. (1997) Saint-Paul: la fondation de l'universalisme . Paris: Presses universitaires de France.

[5] Badiou, A. (2002) Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil . London and New York: Verso.

[6] Badiou, A. (2003) Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism . 1st ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

[7] Badiou, A. (2005) Portées du mot “juif.” Paris: Lignes.

[8] Bartlett, A. J. and Clemens, J. (2014) Alain Badiou: Key Concepts . New York: Routledge.

[9] Baur, F. C. (1875a) Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ: His Life and Work, His Epistles and His Doctrine. A Contribution to the Critical History of Primitive Christianity . London: Williams and Norgate.

[10] Baur, F. C. (1875b) Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ: His Life and Work, His Epistles and His Doctrine. A Contribution to the Critical History of Primitive Christianity . London: Williams and Norgate.

[11] Bensaïd, D. (2004) Alain Badiou and the miracle of the event continuum. In: Hallward, P. (ed.) Think Again, Alain Badiou and the Future of Philosophy . London and New York: Continuum, 94–105.

[12] Blanton, W. and Vries, H. de (2013) Paul and the Philosophers . New York: Fordham University Press.

[13] Bosteels, B. (2011) Badiou and Politics . Durham: Duke University Press.

[14] Breton, S. (1988) Saint Paul . 1st ed. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

[15] Caputo, J. D. and Alcoff, L. M. (2009) St. Paul among the Philosophers . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

[16] Dunn, J. D. G. (2005) The New Perspective on Paul: Collected Essays . London: Coronet Books Incorporated.

[17] Feldman, S. M. (1997) Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State . New York [u.a.]: New York University Press.

[18] Ferdinand Christian Baur (1879) The Church History of the First Three Centuries [Online]. Williams and Norgate. Available at: http://archive.org/details/churchhistoryfi00baurgoog (accessed 12 November 2013).

[19] Frosh, S. (2011) Psychoanalysis, anti-semitism and the Miser. New Formations . 72 (January), 94.

[20] Harris, H. (1990) The Tübingen School: A Historical and Theological Investigation of the School of F.C. Baur . Grand Rapids: Apollos.

[21] Hazan, E. and Badiou, A. (2011) L'antisémitisme partout - Aujourd'hui en France . Paris: La Fabrique.

[22] Holsclaw, G. (n.d.) Subjects between death and resurrection: Badiou, Žižek, and St. Paul. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/379171/Subjects_Between_Death_and_Resurrection_Badiou_Zizek_and_St._Paul (accessed 5 November 2013).

[23] Jones, F. S. (2012) The Rediscovery of Jewish Christianity from Toland to Baur . Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Available format: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=500998 (accessed 12 November 2013).

[24] Kalmar, I. (2013) Early Orientalism: Imagined Islam and the Notion of Sublime Power . New York: Routledge.

[25] Käsemann, E. (1964) Essays on New Testament Themes . London: SCM Press.

[26] Kay, S. (2003) Žižek: A Critical Introduction . Hoboken: Wiley.

[27] Klassen, P. E. and Marshall, J. W. (2012) Saint as Cipher: Paul, Badiou, and the politics of ritual repudiation. History of Religions . 51 (4), 344–63.

[28] Langton, D. R. (2005a) Modern Jewish identity and the apostle Paul: Pauline studies as an intra-Jewish ideological battleground. Journal for the Study of the New Testament . 28 (2), 217–58.

[29] Langton, D. R. (2005b) The myth of the “traditional view of Paul” and the role of the apostle in modern Jewish-Christian polemics. Journal for the Study of the New Testament . 28 (1), 69–104.

[30] Le Monde.fr (n.d.) Le racisme des intellectuels, par Alain Badiou . Le Monde.fr. Available at: http://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2012/article/2012/05/05/le-racisme-des-intellectuels-paralain-badiou_1696292_1471069.html (accessed 15 November 2013).

[31] Lincicum, D. (2012) F. C. Baur's place in the study of Jewish Christianity. In: The Rediscovery of Jewish Christianity from Toland to Baur . Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 137–66. Available format: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=500998 (accessed 12 November 2013).

[32] Masuzawa, T. (2005) The Invention of World Religions: Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[33] Milbank, J., Žižek, S. and Davis, C. (2010) Paul's New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology . Grand Rapids: Brazos Press.

[34] Morris-Reich, A. (2004) Three paradigms of “the negative Jew”: Identity from Simmel to Žižek. Jewish Social Studies . 10 (2), 179–214.

[35] Nirenberg, D. (2013) Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition . New York: W.W. Norton.

[36] Parker, I. (2004) Slavoj Žižek: A Critical Introduction . London: Pluto Press.

[37] Ridderbos, H. N. (1997) Paul: An Outline of His Theology . Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

[38] Schmidt, C. (2007) Review essay of Jacob Taubes' the political theology of Paul. Hebraic Political Studies . 2 (2), 232–41.

[39] Stewart, J. B. (2007) Kierkegaard and His German Contemporaries: Theology . Grand Rapids: Ashgate.

[40] Taubes, J. and Assmann, A. (2004) The Political Theology of Paul . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

[41] Topolski, A. (2017 forthcoming) The race-religion constellation: A European contribution to the critical philosophy of race. Critical Philosophy of Race , August.

[42] W. E. Du Bois (2000) The Negro and the Warsaw Ghetto. In Phil Zuckerman (ed.). Du Bois on Religion. Landham, MD, 197–201. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

[43] Wills, G. (2006) What Paul Meant . New York: Viking.

[44] Wing, A. K. and Smith, M. N. (2006) Critical race feminism lifts the veil: Muslim women, France, and the headscarf ban. U.C. Davis Law Review . 39, 743.

[45] Zachhuber, J. (2013) Theology as Science in Nineteenth-Century Germany: From F.C. Baur to Ernst Troeltsch . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[46] Zachhuber, J. (2014) The absoluteness of Christianity and the relativity of all history. Two Strand in F.Chr. Baur's thought. In: Landmesser, C., Bauspieß, M., and Lincicum, D. (eds.) Ferdinand Christian Baur und die Geschichte des Urchristentums , Tübingen. Mohr Siebeck. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/163526/The_absoluteness_of_Christianity_and_the_relativity_of_all_history._Two_strand_in_F.Chr._Baurs_thought (accessed 6 April 2017).

[47] Žižek, S. (2003) The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity . Cambridge: The MIT Press.

[48] Žižek, S. (2008) The Fragile Absolute, or, Why Is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For? London: Verso.

[49] Žižek, S. (2009) Violence: Six Sideways Reflections . London: Profile Books.

[50] Zizek, S. (n.d.) A glance into the archives of Islam. Available at: http://www.lacan.com/zizarchives.htm (accessed 6 April 2017).