The Theological Metaphors of Marx

Enrique Dussel, Camilo Pérez-Bustillo

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781478025771
  9781478021032
• eBook ISBN:
  9781478027904
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

In The Theological Metaphors of Marx, Enrique Dussel provides a groundbreaking combination of Marxology, theology, and ethical theory. Dussel shows that Marx unveils the theology of capitalism in his critique of commodity fetishization. Capitalism constitutes an idolatry of the commodity that undergirds the capitalist expropriation of labor. Dussel examines Marx's early writings on religion and fetishism and proceeds through what Dussel refers to as the four major drafts of Capital, ultimately situating Marx's philosophical, economic, ethical, and historical insights in relation to the theological problems of his time. Dussel notes a shift in Marx's underlying theological schema from a political critique of the state to an economic critique of the commodity fetish as the Devil, or anti-God, of modernity. Marx's thought, impact, and influence cannot be fully understood without Dussel's historic reinterpretation of the theological origins and implications of Marx's critiques of political economy and politics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Translator’s Note, by Camilo Pérez-Bustillo
• Foreword: On Karl Marx’s Negative Meta-Theology, by Eduardo Mendieta
• Preliminary Words, by Enrique Dussel
• Prologue to the English-Language Edition: The Criticism of Theology as the Criticism of Economics, by Enrique Dussel
• Part I: The Critique of Fetishism
• Part II: Theological “Metaphors”
• Appendix: The Epistemological Decolonization of Theology
• Notes
• Index