Abstract

In an almost hallucinogenic few pages at the close of The Time That Remains, Giorgio Agamben argues that one may trace the deep, if somewhat hidden, effect of the Apostle Paul on Benjamin's texts, texts that never mention Paul explicitly. I propose to offer a close reading of these carefully perverse pages, unpicking Agamben's arguments to see whether a very messianic Paul does indeed emerge from an equally messianic Benjamin, or whether it is an elaborate puppet play. Or, to shift the metaphor, I shall ask whether Agamben has discovered a window into the hidden world of Benjamin's thought, a window that opens up onto Paul himself, or whether the window is frosted, stained glass or perhaps a complex series of mirrors