Monday, May 04, 2009

Faith, Reason, and Revolution: I'm surprised to say it, but I thought this NYT piece by Stanley Fish, reviewing the book Faith, Reason, and Revolution by British literary theorist Terry Eagleton, was interesting.

3 comments:

  1. Terry Eagleton was involved in he 1960s Roman Catholic group Slant

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slant_(journal)

    who combined Christianity with Marxism. From this review it looks like - 40-something years on - he still regards the two as inextricably linked.

    I feel like I have spent far too much of my life reading articles by and about Terry Eagleton (these have, for decades, been frequent in British cultural magazines). I have never found his self-righteous, self-advertizing ranting to be interesting and I still don't. I don't think he has learned anything from experience or world affairs.

    Stanley Fish strikes me as clever but glib and shallow. He was among the most extremely-silly of the famous critical theorists of a couple of decades ago - he has since calmed down somewhat, but he is not someone I would approach expecting wisdom.

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  2. Anonymous1:50 PM

    Godless leftist blogger PZ Myers also has a review of Terry Eagleton's Reason, Faith, and Revolution up on his blog. Unsurprisingly, it isn't as sympathetic as Fish's.

    B.B.

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  3. Anonymous3:54 PM

    BGC said...

    Terry Eagleton was involved in the 1960s Roman Catholic group Slant...who combined Christianity with Marxism. From this review it looks like - 40-something years on - he still regards the two as inextricably linked.

    No, TE tried to integrate Catholicism and Marxism, and TE was not the first to do it in the 20th century. From Ted Kennedy, to the Jesuits agitating for Communism across Latin America, to the parishes of northern Illinois forming the Industrial Areas Foundation (that hired Saul Alinsky) Catholicism IS leftism if not Marxism.

    What Terry Eagleton is doing in England is no different from what Catholics were agitating for across the globe.

    The Reformation brought the end of public Catholicism in Britain, and from there came the Industrial Revolution. I wouldn't be surprised if there were priest pushing for "social justice" during the Dark Ages, which would explain why Europe lived in poverty.

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