| Walter Benjamin, Religion and Aesthetics: Rethinking Religion through the Arts Contributor(s): Plate, S. Brent (Author) |
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ISBN: 0415969921 ISBN-13: 9780415969925 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $42.70 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2004 Annotation: "Walter Benjamin, Religion, and Aesthetics" is an innovative attempt to reconceive the key concepts of religious studies through a reading with, and against, Walter Benjamin. Brent Plate deftly sifts through Benjamin's voluminous writings showing how his concepts of art, allegory, and experience undo traditional religious concepts such as myth, symbol, memory, narrative, creation, and redemption. Recasting religion as religious practice, as process and movement, Plate locates a Benjaminian materialist aesthetics, what the author calls an "allegorical aesthetics," in order to uncover sources and establish a new locus for the study of religion. Placing the concept of an allegorical aesthetics into practice, Plate offers examinations of aesthetic productions such as Daniel Libeskind's architecture and Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades alongside religious developments such as the Hindu Bhakti movement and Jewish Kabbalistic thought. "Walter Benjamin, Religion, and Aesthetics" will be necessary reading for those interested in religion and the arts, aesthetics, and material culture. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Religious - Philosophy | Aesthetics |
| Dewey: 111.850 |
| LCCN: 2004014131 |
| Physical Information: 0.56" H x 6.04" W x 8.92" (0.73 lbs) 188 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Walter Benjamin, Religion, and Aesthetics is an innovative and creative attempt to unsettle and reconceive the key concepts of religious studies through a reading with, and against, Walter Benjamin. Constructing what he calls an "allegorical aesthetics," Plate sifts through Benjamin's writings showing how his concepts of art, allegory, and experience undo traditionally stabilizing religious concepts such as myth, symbol, memory, narrative, creation, and redemption. |