슬라보예 지젝의 그리스도론에 나타난 정치신학적 함의

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the Christology of Slavoj Žižek and clarify the political-theological implications connoted in it. Slavoj Žižek claims that anything can be achieved if Christianity and materialism are united, which he labels ‘Material Theology.’ Furthermore, he places Christology at the core of his idea. Slavoj Žižek’s Christology can be summarized into the ‘death of God,’ ‘double kenosis,’ and the ‘monstrosity of Christ.’ This kind of Christology cannot be understood with the traditional substance-oriented dichotomous outlook on the world of Christianity, but only through the parallax view of ‘Christianity-materialism.’ For Slavoj Žižek, the death of God suffering from its unclear definition as a god or human and the pain of society are overlapping in parallax. In this sense, Slavoj Žižek’s Christology implies the constructive political-theological functions which seek the new form of the subject in addition to the criticism of reality. When observing the interface between the two functions, the death drive of Christ that is also identified as self-emptying can result in a critical function on cynicism within capitalism. Christ’s self-emptying encourages independent actions to be adopted by modern people who gratify their desire by enjoying being subordinated within the reality principle, and this is considered as the ethics of the Real. On the other hand, Slavoj Žižek’s Christology occupies constructive functions in that it seeks the advent of a subject similar to the Messiah which will carry out the changes of current capitalism to another totally new system, similar to the transition from Judaism to the community of new believers through deterritorialization with the help of Christ as a mediator.