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HISTORY AND KAIRÓS
Author(s) -
Baird Andrew
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
history and theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.169
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1468-2303
pISSN - 0018-2656
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2303.2011.00571.x
Subject(s) - messianism , historical materialism , contingency , philosophy , epistemology , apocalypticism , constellation , politics , materialism , argument (complex analysis) , history , theology , marxist philosophy , law , political science , judaism , biochemistry , physics , chemistry , astronomy
The recent wave of interest in the “theological‐political” has focused scholarly attention on the constellation of ideas associated with “messianic time.” The term kairós belongs to this constellation, and Giacomo Marramao's brief but ambitious text of the same name both proposes and performs a “kairological” reconfiguration of the close relationship between philosophy and time. Marramao's argument for the productive potential of “cosmic disorientation” and contingency will merit the attention of historians interested in Benjamin's blend of messianism and historical materialism, and of anyone who is intrigued by the prospect of a messianism without apocalypticism.