Karl Marx constructed his critique of political economy within the conceptual universe of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel's conceptual universe was explicitly theological. It was incarnational. This seminar examines the social and historical formation of this universe. It then invites participants to examine how Marx used Hegel's incarnational theology. Where did Marx differ from Hegel? Why? Was Marx practicing theology? What is the theology of Karl Marx?
JOIN THE SEMINAR
To join the seminar, send an email to the instructor: (1) with your name, pronoun, and email; (2) why you would like to join the seminar.
SEMINAR INSTRUCTOR
Joseph W.H. Lough holds advanced degrees is Church History (MA, PSR, 1989) and Critical Social Theory (PhD, University of Chicago, 1999). He has taught social theory, history, and religion throughout the Bay Area, and economic theory and history for the last ten years in the Economics Department at UC Berkeley. He is the author of several works, including Weber and the Persistence of Religion: Capitalism, Social Theory, and the Sublime (2006) and has contributed to a number of collections, including Misrecognitions: Gillian Rose and the task of Political Theology, ed. Joshua B. Davis (2018) and Borderlands in Theological Education, ed. Deirdre Good and Joshua Davis (2022). He is active at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Berkeley.
WHERE, WHEN, HOW
The seminar will be held in-person in the C. Robbins Clark Library of Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, every Sunday from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm. Remote learners are welcome to participate via Zoom. To receive a zoom link, please email the instructor explaining your interest in joining the course remotely.
SYLLABUS (click here for full syllabus)
SESSION 1 (September 17): Bodies
in which we introduce the embodied character of Christian faith prior to the modern epoch
SESSION 2 (September 24): Hours
in which we examine the origins of abstract time and abstract value
SESSION 3 (October 1): Surface Tensions
in which we examine the Christian response to abstract time and abstract value
SESSION 4 (October 8): Deus Absconditus
in which we examine the fate of awakened bodies
SESSION 5 (October 15): Awakening
in which we look at divine violence
SESSION 6 (October 22): The Spirit
in which we look at the phenomenology of spirit
SESSION 7 (October 29): The Apocalypse
in which we examine the condition for determinate transformation
SESSION 8 (November 5): The Theology of Karl Marx
in which we examine the theology of Karl Marx