Hall, Sean. 2021. Holy Shit: Excremental Philosophy, Religious Ontology, and Spiritual Revelation. The International Journal of Zizek Studies, 15(1), ISSN 1751-8229 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Žižek seems to find great inspiration in Christianity. It is central to Or, Why Is the Christian Legacy Worth Fighting For? (Žižek 2003), and The Monstrosity of Christ (Žižek Indeed, even in his more singularly philosophical and political texts we find that Christianity is often vital to his overall argumentative strategy. (Žižek 2011) (Žižek 2012) This is somewhat surprising given his declared position as an atheist. Yet what seems to appeal to him in Christianity is that, as a religion, it exists not only as theory, but also that it is productive of theory.
What I want to explore here is one aspect of this interest. Specifically, I wish to look at how Žižek’s theoretical take on Christianity can be incorporated into a more general framework of understanding that takes its original departure from the work of Simone Weil. To do this, I intend first to explore a religious ontology that derives from a numbering system that is based, respectively, on both Weil and Žižek. This is an ontology that makes God as 1, the Devil as ∞, human beings as 0, and Christ as - 1 (i.e. as less-than-nothing). Being - 1 will be shown to make Christ a challenge to the symbolic order. Second, I want to demonstrate how, by occupying the place of being less-than-nothing in this framework, Christ is able to offer something to us that is spiritually revelatory.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Religion, Ontology, Christianity, Shit, Nothingness
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Design
Dates:	Date Event 1 March 2021 Published Online
Item ID:	29959
Date Deposited:	19 Apr 2021 09:38
Last Modified:	29 Apr 2021 10:26
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/29959

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