Jacques Lacan is a seminal figure in the history of thought, whose radical contributions to thinking on subjectivity, sexuality and language are hugely influential. However, Lacan's engagements with religion - and specifically with traditions beyond the hegemonic European tradition - have not received the attention they deserve. Lacan himself translated Taoist texts, studied Maimonides' The Guide for the Perplexed and engaged with occultism, Sufism and the Kabbalistic tradition. This book offers the first in-depth exploration of his work in this area, asking: how did the different discourses on 'religion' influence Lacan's own thinking? And what can Lacanian theory offer when it comes to the study of non-European religious beliefs? Can it help us to step outside of the Western Christian framework that still organizes the academic knowledge of what religion should be? This collection critically examines how Lacan helps us to question how far the European understanding of these texts and traditions is tied to the universal drive of capitalism and to the psychological internalization of the history of colonialism.
Introduction / Part I: Modern Occultism and Immemorial Monotheism / 1. Jacques Lacan, Wilfred Bion and the Kabbalah, Bruce Rosenstock / 2. The Will of an Anti-Black Idol: An Insatiable Drive, Calvin Warren / 3. Freedom and Nothingness, Between Theodicy and Anthropodicy: Lacan and (Un)Orthodox Perspectives, Davor Dzalto / 4. Experiences of Transcendence in the Borromean Knot, Janina M. Hofer / Part II: Capitalism and the Occult Drive of the Master / 5. Capitalist Exceptionalism: Discourse, Sexuation and Mysticism, John Holland / 6. Last Judgment, Miroslav Grisko / 7. The Occult Presence of Slavery: A Dialogue on the Logic of the Vel, Jared Sexton and Sora Han / 8. Violence by Any Other Name: The Impasse of Black Female Sexuality, Selamawit Terrefe / Part III: Stepping Outside of Colonial Religiosities / 9. Lacan and Judaism, Agata Bielik-Robson / 10. Lacan and Sufism: Paths for Moving Beyond Pre- and Post-Modern Subjectivities, Mahdi Tourage / 11. Learning to Desire Through the Desire of the Other: Lacan and Maximus the Confessor in Dialogue, Dionysius Skliris / 12. On a "Mysterious Effusion": The Presence of Lacan in Benny Levy, Gilles Hanus / 13. Decolonizing Ibn'Arabi with Jacques Lacan or Why Ibn'Arabi is Not a Neoplatonist, Philipp Valentini / Conclusion / Index
