New Statesman, 1 April 2010

St Paul was a leftie

Published on 2 April 2010 at 10:57
New Statesman, 1 April 2010

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For its Easter issue, left wing weekly the New Statesman is pondering the question of God, faith and belief, with Slavoj Žižek in typically iconoclastic mood defending Christianity as an inspiration for radical politics. “Christianity is anti-wisdom,” the Slovenian philosopher writes, “wisdom tells us that our efforts are in vain, that everything ends in chaos, while Christianity madly insists on the impossible.” The Christian tradition, he argues, “rejects the wisdom that the hierarchic order is our fate, that all attempts to mess with it and create another egalitarian order have to end up in destructive horror.” Putting forward St Paul as a hero for a new left wing politics, he quotes from Ephesians - "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against leaders, against authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual wickedness in the heavens."

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