Abstract

This thesis explores the theological assertions of the philosopher Slavoj Žižek. Žižek, an atheist and a materialist, has produced a rather substantial body of work concerning Christianity in general and Christian theology specifically. My aim here is several. First, to provide an intellectual portrait of the dominant themes and ideas that emerge from Žižek’s earliest writings to his most recent. Second, to show how certain tensions which emerged in these earlier writings provided the impetus for his later interest to Christian theology. As well, I will argue that Žižek’s specific form of Christian theology echoes the themes and tensions announced by Radical theology, I shall show this via a study of the dominant themes that are prevalent in Thomas Altizer’s Death of God Theology. Finally, in my analysis of Žižek’s various theological claims I set out to describe the actual form of Christianity which surfaces from Žižek’s encounter with Christianity, by asking: what is the image of Christ that emerges from Žižek’s analysis? Why did Christ incarnate in flesh and have to die according to Žižek’s theology? And what does it mean to be a Christian, transformed by Christ, resulting from the interaction between Žižek and Christian theology?