The Uses of Failure

Christian Socialism as a Nomadic City of the Gift Economy

Bibliographic Data

ID5007583
AuthorsTrevor Hogan (0000-0002-8501-6348, La Trobe University, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume80
Issue1
Pages74-93
Publication date2005-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0725513605049125
OpenAlexW1989854967
LanguageEN
References cited18

Socialism is dead and Christianity, at least in the modern West, is not feeling too good either. What remains of the substantive goals, ethics, and ideals of socialism in an epoch of political defeat and in the aftermath of a century of tragic experiments? Are 'still existing' socialists simply nostalgic, seeking consolation in an opiate of lost dreams, or are there fragments of ideas and policies that constitute a still living politics of hope for humanity? Christian socialism is one socialist tradition well-suited to address these meta-questions of faith, meaning and goal, not least because it has no unitary political ideology, party or even movement. It is argued here that Christian socialism's best legacy and use-value today is in its historic failure to be anything other than a modest discourse and practice of a social ethic of free association, political pluralism and a gift economy. To these ends, I use a case study of a clash between two rival versions of contemporary Christian socialism. I then explicate the more difficult and radical version to be found in the work of its leading representative. I outline Milbank's arguments for Christian socialism as a counter ontology to the secular politics of the modern nation state, an alternative complex space that conceives of community as 'nomadic city', and a free market economy based on the poetic practice of gift-giving. This is an agenda, a discourse and a poetic practice bound to failure. Therein is its use value to socialism

Aesthetics · Capitalism · Communism · Epistemology · Ideology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Sociology · State socialism · Karl Barth and Christian Theology · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Theological Perspectives and Practices

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