Table Of ContentClandestine
Theology
Also Available from Bloomsbury
Anti-Badiou: On the Introduction of Maoism into Philosophy,
François Laruelle
The Principles of Non-Philosophy, François Laruelle
The Last Humanity: A New Ecological Science,
François Laruelle (forthcoming)
Clandestine
Theology
A Non-Philosopher’s
Confession of Faith
François Laruelle
Translated by Andrew
Sackin-Poll
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana
logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in 2019 in France as Théologie Clandestine pour les sans-religion: Une
confession de foi du non-philosophe by Editions Kimé
First published in Great Britain 2021
English Language translation Copyright © Andrew Sackin-Poll, 2021
Andrew Sackin-Poll has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as Translator of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xii constitute
an extension of this copyright page.
Cover design by Charlotte Daniels
Cover images: Background © Max McKinnon / Unsplash
Crucifixion statue © Enrico Della Pietra / Alamy Stock Photo
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this
book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any
inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but
can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Laruelle, François, author. | Sackin-Poll, Andrew, translator.
Title: Clandestine theology : a non-philosopher’s confession of faith /
Francois Laruelle ; translated by Andrew Sackin-Poll.
Other titles: Théologie clandestine pour les sans-religion. English
Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. | “First published in
2019 in France as Théologie Clandestine pour les sans-religion: Une confession de foi
du non-philosophe by Editions Kimé.” | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020019588 (print) | LCCN 2020019589 (ebook) | ISBN
9781350104310 (paperback) | ISBN 9781350104242 (hardback) | ISBN
9781350104235 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350104297 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Jesus Christ. | Christianity–Essence, genius, nature. | Bible.
Epistles of Paul–Theology. | Philosophical theology. | Philosophy and religion.
Classification: LCC BT304.9 .L3713 2020 (print) | LCC BT304.9 (ebook) |
DDC 230–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019588
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019589
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-0424-2
PB: 978-1-3501-0431-0
ePDF: 978-1-3501-0423-5
eBook: 978-1-3501-0429-7
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
Contents
Foreword viii
Acknowledgements xii
Translator’s note xiii
Introduction xiii
A clandestine theology xxi
A real critique of theology by faith xxiii
We are not survivors of the tomb xxix
The Stranger-subject and the word xxxvii
Laruelle and the future of theology: A theoretical liturgy xlii
References l
Introduction 1
Cl andestine theology: The impossible homoousia and the
destruction of the trinity 1
An axiomatic of the trinity 2
1 Faith and belief 7
Man-in-person as universal a priori 7
The generic style and its two interpretations 11
The confession of faith and theological duplicity 17
Faith and dualyzation of belief 19
Faith, fidelity, and grace 23
Belief as unilateral paradox 25
vi Contents
Faith as a priori posture 28
Profess or confess faith? 30
The identity-in-the-last-instance of faith and religion 31
The category of the non-religious Christian 33
The Name-of-Christ as first symbol 37
The work of the confession of faith 41
Faith transforms the works of the world 44
Faith testifies to a forced speech 47
2 The Gospels: Models for non-Christianity 51
A Gnostic Christ and the insurrection of faith 51
The words of Jesus on life 54
The sayings of Jesus: Theorems or axioms? 56
Life, living, surviving, and glorious experience 61
Christ according to St Paul: The Pauline reversal 65
St Paul according to Jesus: The Pauline inversion 70
The inverse of Christianity 74
Ch rist as immanent mediation or medium-without-
mediation 76
Messianity as sub-version of Christianity 82
On the plane of salvation, we make a tabula rasa 88
Th e disciple and the apostle: A dualysis of the apostolic
tradition 91
The a priori defence of faith by the paraclete 95
3 Surviving scripture, glorious scripture 99
Incarnation as clonage 99
Sh ould Christianity be deconstructed? Surviving scripture,
surviving writing 102
Glorious writing, risen among the signifying 105
A non-Catholic thesis for the use of the reformation 109
Fidelity as a rigorous method 113
Contents vii
A theorem of salvation as work 116
Two forms of atheism: Conformism and heresy 118
How the without-religion adopts religion 120
Heresy as theo-fiction and philo-fiction 122
4 Dualysis of the trinity 127
Dualysis of revelation 127
On the trinity as symptom 128
On the trinity as circumcession 132
In-the-last-paternity 136
How God becomes Son of Man 139
5 A clandestine non-religion 141
The Name-of-Man 141
Philosophical and religious paradigms 144
The two initial prejudices of all theology 146
A theory of radical evil 150
Post-ecclesial faith as last belief 153
The end of beliefs and the exit from the post-ecclesial 154
From the exit from belief to faithful access 158
Towards a clandestine theology – Thought-faith 159
A definitively non-sufficient grace: Against creation 162
The reformation as model for non-religion 163
The consummation of time 165
Retreat and grace 168
From sin to evil 174
A clandestine and messianic life 177
Notes 183
Index 186
Foreword
Clandestine Theology sets out the conditions for a systematic
distinction between faith and belief. It is clandestine because it
does not go through any of the usual paths, which, at one point or
another, mix these two orders. It makes possible a reinterpretation of
dogma as many models through which to understand religion afresh.
This distinction thus leads to an inversion in interpretation: dogma no
longer offers the means to interpret faith, but rather it is a particular
result of what has already happened, for example, the resurrection,
given without donation.
One knows that belief is a complex and variable mixture of
languages, symbols, and generalizations about lived experiences that
draw solidity and consistency from an authority that grants such an
entanglement. Faith is, by contrast, a kind of Ockham’s razor that
remains partially indifferent to beliefs. It poses a certain resistance
to beliefs, while at the same time offering the means to handle them.
Faith is the function of the ‘without-religion’.
Belief, therefore, has its origin in the world and the activity of
subjects. It is normal in matters affecting relations between subjects
and their tribulations. Through prayer, confession, and mass, the
subject lives their belief. Faith is much more mysterious, however,
since it does not have the immediate support of beliefs. Where
does faith come from? How does it happen? Let us remember the
Foreword ix
imperative of Laruelle at the back of the review of The Philosophical
Decision: ‘Do not do like philosophers, invent philosophy! Change its
practice!’ Is not such an imperative an act of faith?
I would like to propose a general hypothesis about faith, as
Laruelle understands it. In my opinion, it is not limited to any field.
Faith is no more restricted to the field of religion than any other, like
philosophy, art, and technology. As Laruelle’s works show, one handles
a discipline thanks only to its relation to another heterogeneous and
‘under’ or ‘sub-’ field, deployed in order to avoid the phenomenon
of reversibility. See, for example, the fusion of philosophy and the
quantum found ‘underneath’ the non-standard in Non-Standard
Philosophy, the fusion of philosophy and theology in a ‘sub-’ theology
in Future Christ and Christo-Fiction, and the fusion of philosophy and
technology found in the ordinary of Biography of the Ordinary Man.
This fusion is one of the effects of faith. The two opposing aspects of
faith – that is, radical distinction and fusion – are made compatible in
non-philosophy and non-standard philosophy.
We know that the Real and the world are radically separated by
Laruelle. The Real = x is called the generic human, without qualities,
and ‘in’ the world are subjects and their attributes. The distinction of
human and subjects is a pledge of peace; exterminations, holocausts,
genocides always suppose their indistinction: is it the human who is
killed in the subject?
I suppose that the generic human, in his or her radical loneliness,
does not need faith. This is shown through dualysis, whereby an
ordinary term x is made to appear at the very edge of the relation,
always indirect, between propositions made in the world and the
Real. The rules of dualysis are explained in Philosophy and Non-
philosophy. Faith would thus appear as the point of or necessary
passage for the fragments of the dualistic world and the Real, rather
than from the generic human, which is always indifferent to the
