Walter Benjamin and Theology

In the Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin writes that his work is "related to theology as blotting pad is related to ink. It is saturated with it." For a thinker so decisive to critical literary, cultural, political, and aesthetic writings over the past half-century, Benjamin's relationship to theological matters has been less observed than it should, even despite a variety of attempts over the last four decades to illuminate the theological elements latent within his eclectic and occasional writings. Such attempts, though undeniably crucial to comprehending his thought, remain in need of deepened systematic analysis. In bringing together some of the most renowned experts from both sides of the Atlantic, Walter Benjamin and Theology seeks to establish a new site from which to address both the issue of Benjamin's relationship with theology and all the crucial aspects that Benjamin himself grappled with when addressing the field and operations of theological inquiry.

Colby Dickinson is Assistant Professor of Theology at Loyola University, Chicago. He is the author of Agamben and Theology, Between the Canon and the Messiah: The Structure of Faith in Contemporary Continental Thought, The Spiritual and Creative Failures of Representation: On Poetry, Theology and the Potential of the Human Being (Fordham) and, with Adam Kotsko, Agamben's Coming Philosophy: Finding a New Use for Theology. He is the editor of The Postmodern 'Saints' of France: Refiguring 'the Holy' in Contemporary French Philosophy and The Shaping of Tradition: Context and Normativity.

Stéphane Symons is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven (Belgium). He is the author of Walter Benjamin: Presence of Mind, Failure to Comprehend, as well as a number of articles on Benjamin's work and aesthetics. His main research interests are Weimar thought and Twentieth Century, French philosophy.