Žižek and Milbank: The Monstrosity of Christ?

“However, the purpose of this reading is to stress—contra more conservative interpreters like Milbank—that the disordered post-modern world that we inhabit is not a firm break with Christianity.”

“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns and placed it on his head. Then they threw a purple robe around him. They kept coming to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they kept hitting him in the face. Pilate went outside again and said to them, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.’ So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’”—John 19:1-16

One of the most interesting recent developments in theoretical circles has been a rejuvenated interest in the topic of religion. Going back to the 18th century Enlightenment, liberal critics such as Voltaire and Hume often caricatured religion as abetting both political and intellectual authoritarianism. This was given a more systematic twist in the 19th century with Karl Marx’s disparaging comments about religion serving as the “opiate of the masses” in his critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right. In this reading, the social function of religion was to anesthetize the exploited by distracting them from the reality of political and economic oppression. Sigmund Freud largely agreed, labeling religion an “illusion” intended to help us cope with helplessness in the world. Since human beings became ever more scientific and reflective, Freud also believed religion was well past its sell-by date. By the early 21st century, New Atheist movements spearheaded by militant liberals such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris carried these positions forward to praise and controversy.

Yet despite all of this outrage, religion has not disappeared from public life. It remains a potent political force across the world and is at the epicenter of many of the ongoing debates about secularism, liberal toleration, and the like. Theorists have responded to this by taking more seriously both the claims of religious theology and by examining the historical impact of the world’s most important faith traditions. One of the more interesting contributions to this reevaluation is the 2009 book The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic by the left-wing philosopher Slavoj Žižek and the founder of “radical orthodoxy,” John Milbank. The book is a dialogue and debate about the legacy of Christianity in the 21st century and highlights what is at stake on several levels. This makes it a useful guide for thinking through some of the issues facing us in 2020.