Il tempo che resta

A revolutionary and phenomenological reading/interpretation of Paul's letters in view of the whole 2000 years of the Western thinking. Is it that only one man by the name of Paul gave rise to the western thought and imagination? The hope and optimism of Resurrection, salvation held firmly in one's s Leggi tutto

This is simply an incredible book. It remains suggestive rather than fully developed at several points, but nonetheless A. puts his finger on key issues, and if one can tolerate his brevity and compactness then almost each section calls out for further reflection. His take on Paul's as not ( hōs mē ) f Leggi tutto

The amount of sheer *insight* found between the pages of a philosophy book never ceases to amaze me.

Agamben writes on a dizzying array of topics, and my interest was piqued when I learned that he had written a Scripture commentary. This book is a word by word commentary on the first ten words (in Greek) of St. Paul's Letter to the Romans. Agamben argues, in this book, that the whole of Pauline the Leggi tutto

Without a doubt Agamben's style in this book, compared to that in "The Open", was drastically influenced by Derrida. His Deconstructive-style rants were both exciting and infuriating. He explicitly states the questions that he seemingly intends to answer and, regardless of what he may think, fails t Leggi tutto

I found this a difficult but stimulating book. The difficulty, I think, has to do with the book dealing with a line of thought that hasn't been dealt with much. The concept of "Messianic" time that Paul was operating from is subsumed into a flatter continuation of history that misses the quality of

Agamben does here an impressive commentary on the Letter To The Romans, more impressive in the variety of the concepts he is choosing to use in the commentary than of the hermeutical or biblical accuracy. An interest short read that motivates it's existence by showing an applicability - over a vers

This one made a deep impression on me, but if you're looking for an orthodox exegetical commentary on Romans, this isn't it. Agamben is more interested in developing his own ideas than giving a precisely accurate interpretation of St. Paul, which, although an approach I can't really commend, produce Leggi tutto

Standing on the shoulders of thinkers like Weber and Benjamin, Agamben attempts to liberate not only the book of Romans but the very concept of christos from the Christian tradition. He makes a compelling case that "messiah" is the founding principle of the occidental political tradition. He also in Leggi tutto

I remember reading stories of how the Dadaists would cut up snippets of newspaper and reassemble them, or how Surrealists would free associate poetry. Yeah, this book is just like that, but done by someone who should know better. I read this book twice, and what I did the first read with Agamben’s w Leggi tutto