The Arguments of Radical Atheism – Some Critical Reflections

The paper provides a critical review of Martin Hägglund's influential Radical Atheism. The paper focuses on what Hägglund calls ‘radical atheism’: the view that according to Derrida ‘the best is the worst’. First, the paper critically examines Hägglund's reconstruction of Derrida's argument for the structure of the trace or ‘the spacing of time’. This analysis clarifies one of the central premises in Hägglund's argument for radical atheism: the ‘contamination’ claim, according to which anything temporal is open as such to the future and is thus alterable in some way. The paper then turns to highlight some of Hägglund's rhetorical slippages that seem to be supported by the contamination claim but actually move beyond what it licenses. Next, the paper focuses critically on the argument for radical atheism and shows how it relies on an unwarranted premise that lies hidden in the discussion of the structure of the trace. Finally, the second central argument that informs Hägglund's work is questioned, that is, the argument for the view that what we are always and already committed to is to live on, that is, survive, so that it is this desire for the mortal that lies behind all our desires.

Bauer, Bruno (1809–82)

The career of the Hegelian theologian Bruno Bauer is marked by his sudden turn from a reasoned defender of Christianity into one of its most extreme critics. His radical interpretation of Hegel’s philosophy, which he first used to defend orthodox biblical hermeneutics, ultimately led him to become, as one of his admirers said, the ‘Robespierre of theology’. As the leader of the so-called ‘Young Hegelian’ school, Bauer was one of Hegel’s most gifted students. However, his condemnation of theology in general and his thesis that the New Testament was merely the fictional product of an unknown author contributed to the general distrust of Hegelianism among religious thinkers. Although his many theological and historical writings now remain largely unread, his ‘Critical Philosophy’ and his radical atheism exerted a strong influence upon Marx, who was his student and friend, and is still evident in such contemporaries as Jürgen Habermas.

Time, Eternity, and the Prospects for Care. An Essay in Honor of Jürgen Moltmann’s 90th Birthday

The eternal God is not merely an illusion, as traditional atheism claims; God is an undesirable illusion, in fact, an illusion which is, on closer inspection, impossible to desire. This, roughly, is the thesis of Martin Hägglund’s »radical atheism,« one of whose primary claims is the essential temporality of all human desire. To see eternity and absolute fullness as the ultimate goal is to desire nothingness, he argues; this desire as such (and not just its practical outworking) entails denial of care for and joy in ordinary life. This essay is a critical dialogue with Hägglund, a friendly dispute about time and eternity as they bear on the possibilities of care and joy.