Chapter Eight. Adorno’s Vacillation

Abstract

This chapter tracks an ambivalence, a vacillation over the question of theology itself. It reviews a host of theological notions, such as redemption, reconciliation, faith, grace and love. The author picks up the two key moments, Christology and sacrifice, which allows him to focus on the key theological question of reconciliation. The role of Judaism would have to be one of the most enigmatic dimensions of Theodor Adorno's work, closely tied up with the ethical, metaphysical and even autobiographical absolute of Auschwitz in his later texts. The author draws from Adorno, theological suspicion and the criticism of secularised theology. He treats them separately, theological suspicion maintaining its vigilance in the arena of theology itself and the criticism of secularised theology ready to cut down any foray outside, any effort to draw theology out of its cosy, fire-lit lounge room full of the memorabilia of millennia.Keywords: Christology; Judaism; sacrifice; Theodor Adorno; theological suspicion