Alister E. McGrath,A Scientific Theology

Abstract

One of the more interesting points of contention between Slavoj ?i?ek and John Milbank in their recent debate, The Monstrosity of Christ, is over the nature and status of belief in the supernatural. For ?i?ek belief in the supernatural is an ultimate symptom of capitalist domination; for Milbank it is a sign of the reality of the elusive promise of a world whose beneficence exceeds both the imagination and the administrative powers of empire and capital. I contend that even without Milbank's orthodox perspective, ?i?ek's reduction of magic to fantasy obscures the black magic of capitalism itself and so arbitrarily and unnecessarily forecloses on modes of resistance that are allied to liturgical, theurgical, and spiritual practices.