Lexington Books / Fortress Academic
Pages: 252
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9
978-1-9787-0312-4 • Hardback • May 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
978-1-9787-0313-1 • eBook • May 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)
Chester O’Gorman is adjunct instructor at St. Catherine University.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Sin and Liberation in Bultmann’s Theology
Chapter 3: The Critique of Bultmann’s Kerygmatic Christology
Chapter 4: The Ontology of Objet A
Chapter 5: Christ as Objet A of Drive
Chapter 6: Repeating the Law in the Present
Chapter 7: Repeating Grace in the Present
Chapter 8: Concluding Remarks
Bultmann was right: ‘God does not intend that we wander around as living mummies of the ancient world.’ Nor should we mummify Bultmann. In this book, Chester O’Gorman brings the full theoretical weight of Slavoj Žižek’s work to bear upon the project of demythologization and resolve the central dilemma: Can we demythologize the Bible without undermining Christian fidelity to the historical occurrence of Christ? By addressing Bultmann with Žižek’s ontology, the author cleverly problematizes the very idea of an original as such, whilst maintaining nonetheless the exclusivity of Christ qua event, in a way that will answer both conservative and liberal theological concerns. This is a marked, original, indeed fascinating contribution to Bultmann studies and theology more generally.
— Marcus Pound, Durham University
Rudolf Bultmann has been an under-utilized resource for radical theology. In this extremely smart book, O'Gorman confronts Bultmann with Slavoj Žižek in a powerful encounter. Here what Lacan and Žižek call the object a of the drive generalizes Christ as the demythologized object of revelation that liberates humanity from sin in a universal--not a sectarian--manner.
— Clayton Crockett, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, University of Central Arkansas, USA
How can the transformative Christ-occurrence that Rudolf Bultmann interpreted for modernity make sense within the emerging postmodern frameworks of understanding? In this provocative thought-experiment, O’Gorman shows how Slavoj Žižek improves upon Bultmann by providing a consistently demythologized ontology. Bringing together the existential and political dimensions of revelation today, the goal is to liberate our humanity amid the social systems we construct––and which presume to construct us––as our god.
— James F. Kay, Princeton Theological Seminary
Here is a courageous attempt to transform radical theology into liberation theology through a completion of Bultmann’s demythologization of the concept of revelation by way of Žižek’s ontology. What results is a powerful hermeneutic that boldly insists on the ongoing reality and relevance of revelation. A must-read.
— Josh de Keijzer, independent scholar; author of "Bonhoeffer’s Theology of the Cross"