Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt on the jewish question

political theology as a critique

Artemy Magun

pp. 545-568

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the politico-theological critique of Judaism from the position of Christianity. It shows the affinity of Marx's early critique of liberal state and of Hannah Arendt's criticism of formal legalistic thinking in the contemporary judicial treatment of Nazism (and of similar international political crimes). Marx's critique of nation-state finds its unlikely continuation in Arendt's critique of international law. The politico-theological argument is explicit in Marx and implicit in Arendt, but both develop the Hegelian criticism of liberal state which shows its reliance on the abstract law, on the one hand, and on the egotistic abstract individual, on the other. The theological undercurrent of the argument is both sign of its limitations, and of the subsisting relevance of the politico-theological framework, even in the similarly novel circumstances of the twentieth century. It is only within and through the theological critique and critique of theology that these issues would stand a chance of resolution.

Publication details

Published in:

(2012) Political theology. Continental Philosophy Review 45 (4).

Pages: 545-568

DOI: 10.1007/s11007-012-9235-8

Full citation:

Magun Artemy (2012) „Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt on the jewish question: political theology as a critique“. Continental Philosophy Review 45 (4), 545–568.