{"product_id":"the-puppet-and-the-dwarf-the-perverse-core-of-christianity-9780262740258","title":"The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of our most daring intellectuals offers a Lacanian interpretation of religion, finding that early Christianity was the first revolutionary collective.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eSlavoj Zizek has been called \"an academic rock star\" and \"the wild man of theory\"; his writing mixes astonishing erudition and references to pop culture in order to dissect current intellectual pieties. In \u003ci\u003eThe Puppet and the Dwarf\u003c\/i\u003e he offers a close reading of today's religious constellation from the viewpoint of Lacanian psychoanalysis. He critically confronts both predominant versions of today's spirituality--New Age gnosticism and deconstructionist-Levinasian Judaism--and then tries to redeem the \"materialist\" kernel of Christianity. His reading of Christianity is explicitly political, discerning in the Pauline community of believers the first version of a revolutionary collective. Since today even advocates of Enlightenment like Jurgen Habermas acknowledge that a religious vision is needed to ground our ethical and political stance in a \"postsecular\" age, this book--with a stance that is clearly materialist and at the same time indebted to the core of the Christian legacy--is certain to stir controversy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSlavoj Zizek, a philosopher and cultural critic, is Senior Researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University, and International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London. He is the author of more than thirty books, including \u003ci\u003eLooking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Parallax View\u003c\/i\u003e, T\u003ci\u003ehe Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic \u003c\/i\u003e(with John Milbank), and \u003ci\u003eZizek's Jokes (Did you hear the one about Hegel and negation?)\u003c\/i\u003e, these five published by the MIT Press.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50410028957970,"sku":"9780262740258","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_45557801-968d-43ef-bf9b-c4c309f14142.jpg?v=1729299560","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-puppet-and-the-dwarf-the-perverse-core-of-christianity-9780262740258","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}