Resumen

CATANZARO, Gisela. Materialism and Theology in the Thought of Walter Benjamin. Utopìa y Praxis Latinoamericana [online]. 2009, vol.14, n.47, pp.79-92. ISSN 1315-5216.

How should we understand the reference to theology made by Benjamin in his critical re-conceptualization of the dominant notion of history? This article proposes a re-reading of some texts by Benjamin written before his work “On the concept of History,” in which theological language plays a leading part, aiming to determine its relationship to the peculiar Benjaminian conception of the materialist critic and the interpretative method. The study suggests that in those works, the theological text appears both as an object of that criticism and as an index of contents indispensable for the necessary criticism of critical reason, in particular regarding the dominant versions of materialism and dialectics.

Palabras clave : Benjamin; criticism; materialism; theology.