A critique of the messianic theology of Juergen Moltmann through the messianic philosophy of Walter Benjamin: Staying with the negative

This work is a critical reading of the messianic theology of Jurgen Moltmann through the hermeneutical lens of the messianic philosophy of Walter Benjamin. The ultimate goal of this reading is to retrieve the messianic dimension of Christian Trinitarian discourse by engaging Moltmann's thought with the particular apophaticism of Benjamin's understanding of the messianic.;Chapter One delineates the larger context of Moltmann's theological authorship, situating him on the fissured horizon of post-Shoah European existence. Particular emphasis is placed on the hermeneutical importance of identifying Moltmann's theology as a political theology. Chapter Two provides a concentrated engagement with the Jewish theological, philosophical sources of Moltmann's theology with the goal of outlining the contours of his messianic Christology. In Chapter Three the messianic orientation of Moltmann's theology is further demonstrated through reading his cosmic pneumatology in a messianic key, ultimately exposing in Moltmann's thought what may be referred to as "doxological excess." In the following two chapters the thought of Walter Benjamin, reconstructed as a consistently messianic philosophy, is presented as a possible corrective to the logic of Moltmann's messianism. Chapter Four, organically connected to the exposition of Moltmann's retrieval of experience for Christian Trinitarian thought, deals with the reconfiguration of the epistemic significance of experience in Benjamin's messianic epistemology. Chapter Five shows both the effect Benjamin's messianic epistemology on his philosophy of history and the logic of Benjamin's inverse theology. Finally, in light Benjamin's messianic philosophy and philosophy of language, a particular redescription of Moltmann's thought is achieved. Through a benjaminian reading of Moltmann's theology of the cross the essential presence of the negative, inherent in Jewish messianism, is restored to Moltmann's Trinitarian logic.