[1] The postmodern situation has brought with it a revival of theological discourses and categories. Not only has postmodernity deconstructed the Enlightenment conception of a value-neutral, naked public square but it has also led multiple philosophers to engage with St. Paul and other theological resources to address various socio-cultural and economic challenges. Daniel M. Bell Jr’s book, Divinations: Theopolitics in an Age of Terror, engages this newfound interest in theology by postmodern philosophers like Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Slavoj Žižek, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, and Alain Badiou.
[2] While acknowledging that these philosophers are militant atheists and not friends of the faith, Bell contends that Christian theologians should engage with these philosophers’ (mis)use of theology charitably and critically because there is much in their work that is salutary. Invoking Augustine’s insights that even pagans can find vestigia trinitatis, or echoes of God’s truth, by living in the world, Bell draws on these philosophers to similar effect (x).
[3] Bell argues that we live in a post-political age, where contemporary philosophers seek a new political framework that transcends the modern focus on realities like nation-states, class, and totalitarianism. Bell is not optimistic that these philosophers can articulate a politics that escapes the clutches of capital and violence; nevertheless, he believes their critical thought can help describe “a kind of diaspora or pilgrim politics precisely because it exceeds the political containers of modernity, such as class and party, states and borders” (xii). In concert with their work, Bell seeks to develop an “Augustinian political theology or ecclesiology” or “an ecclesial politics of pilgrimage” (xiv, 178-180).
[4] In Chapter 1, Bell takes on the concept of fear in contemporary political thought. Drawing on the work of Hobbes, Foucault, and Deleuze, Bell argues that we live in a culture of fear. Despite political liberalism’s promise to ward off and protect from fear, liberalism actually thrives on the production and manipulation of fear (5-12). In response to this culture of fear, Bell turns to Badiou’s reading of St. Paul. Badiou argues that the Christian gospel announces the interruption of a politics of fear and offers a political vision that is not “being-for-death” but “being-for-life” through the resurrection (14-19). Coupled with Paul’s assertion that the Christ event frees us from fear (Luke 2:10-14), Bell draws on Augustine’s City of God. Augustine’s work provides a foil for Bell to affirm earthly politics without being subsumed by it or withdrawing from it. More importantly, it helps reveal that the City of God is animated by a radically different kind of politics – one not constituted by violence and fear, but by the resurrection, which extends the communion of God’s love in Christ to the nations (20–27).
[5] In Chapter 2, Bell again draws on Badiou’s contention that capitalism provides a false universalism that swallows all aspects of civil society into itself. However, Bell argues that Badiou does not go far enough because he does not know or believe in the “Catholicity of Salvation” found in the concrete universal, Jesus Christ (63-71). In Christ’s calling of both Jew and Gentile to himself, Christ establishes a divine and universal economic order rooted in gift, donation, and unending generosity that subverts the logic of savage capitalism rooted in scarcity, competition, dominion, and debt (72-73).
[6] In Chapter 3, Bell draws on Deleuze’s critique of capitalism, which he sees as analogous to God’s judgement over all things. In his essay, “To Have Done with Judgment,” Deleuze sketches how, in ancient Greece, the gods were thought to give lots to men, and judgment was pronounced for not fulfilling one’s god-given lot in life. Deleuze contends that Christianity intensified the judgment of God so that we “have become in our entire being the infinite debtors of a single God” (82). Deleuze finds a parallel between the judgment of God that stands entirely over a person and the clutch and grasp of capitalism’s discipline (82-86).
[7] Bell then seeks to move beyond Deleuze’s construal by arguing that salvation from God’s judgment and, concurrently, salvation from the logic of capitalism comes in the person and work of Jesus. Drawing on Anselm’s and Aquinas’ theology of the cross, Bell argues that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross reveals the true meaning of sacrifice, which, in turn, exposes the ersatz logic of sacrifice often perpetuated and assumed in forms of capitalism that privilege competition, scarcity, and disordered desire (86-100).
[8] In Chapter 4, Bell explores the relationship between the law in its “capitalist captivity of life” and the Christian law of love (104). Bell contends that philosophers like Badiou and Negri do not escape the logic of capitalism or the sovereignty of the state (127). However, by drawing on Augustine’s “The Letter and the Spirit,” Bell offers a Christian vision of law rooted in the love of Christ that is participatory and freely received and given, not coerced and enforced through violence (128-129). Bell argues that the Christian law of love provides the logic for a just economic order rooted in works of mercy and care for neighbors so that human communion is nurtured instead of fragmented and destroyed (132).
[9] In Chapter 5, Bell explores political concepts like sovereignty, exception, and democracy in conversation with Agamben, Derrida, Hardt, and Negri (136). While Bell argues that these voices are often salutary and helpful, he finds that they are incapable of moving politics beyond empire and, as a result, are insufficiently democratic (137). In response to this critique, Bell argues that the church of Christ is itself the most salutary expression of democratic politics as the political body that invites all, from every nation, tribe, and tongue, into communion with the triune God (179).
[10] Divinations is not a book describing how the church or individual Christians should practically participate in the public square or the economic systems of the day; instead, this highly theoretical work provides a constructive engagement with leading postmodern philosophers and their theological turn. Given its exploratory and interdisciplinary nature, readers will inevitably assess its implications and its construal of topics like cross and capitalism differently. While not in agreement with all of Bell’s arguments, engaging this work was both a stimulating and reforming experience. It is also an impressive example of how Christian theologians must charitably and critically engage not just their own theological guild but also the secular intellectual elite and, in so doing, “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5 ESV).
William G. Fredstrom is a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO, and an Associate Pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, School, and Childcare in Seymour, IN (LCMS).