Supernatural Capital: A Note on the Žižek-Milbank Debate

One of the more interesting points of contention between Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank in their recent debate, The Monstrosity of Christ, is over the nature and status of belief in the supernatural. For Žižek belief in the supernatural is an ultimate symptom of capitalist domination; for Milbank it...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political theology : the journal of Christian Socialism 2010-12, Vol.11 (1), p.121-125
Main Author: Delpech-Ramey, Joshua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adorno
capital
Capitalism
Dominance
Empires
Magic
Millbank
Power
Resistance
Žižek
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Summary:One of the more interesting points of contention between Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank in their recent debate, The Monstrosity of Christ, is over the nature and status of belief in the supernatural. For Žižek belief in the supernatural is an ultimate symptom of capitalist domination; for Milbank it is a sign of the reality of the elusive promise of a world whose beneficence exceeds both the imagination and the administrative powers of empire and capital. I contend that even without Milbank's orthodox perspective, Žižek's reduction of magic to fantasy obscures the black magic of capitalism itself and so arbitrarily and unnecessarily forecloses on modes of resistance that are allied to liturgical, theurgical, and spiritual practices.
ISSN:1462-317X
1743-1719
DOI:10.1558/poth.v11i1.121