Adorno and the Question of Theology

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Adorno scholars disagree about why and how he uses theological concepts such as redemption. Are they merely rhetorical? Metaphorical? Inversely or negatively theological? Through careful and creative reconstruction, Rachel R. Rosner offers a new and thought-provoking account of how theological concepts figure in Adorno's thought and shows the relevance of his approach today. * Lambert Zuidervaart, Resident Fellow, Theory Centre, Western University, CAN; author of Adorno's Aesthetic Theory; Social Philosophy after Adorno; and Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth * Adorno's sporadic, under-justified invocation of certain theological concepts has confounded all who remember his debts to those resolute atheists Marx and Freud. Reading negative dialectics as a strategy eschewing the search for firm foundations, transcendent truths and teleological goals, Rachel R. Rosner makes an arresting case for their crucial function in an historically dynamic conceptual constellation that resists the gravitational pull of the status quo. * Martin Jay, Ehrman Professor of European History Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, USA *