How to Deceive by Way of the Truth: Marx and the Critique of Political Theology

Four ways of deceiving, whether in individuals or structurally embodied in social practices, contribute to a generic notion of a performative contradiction – an intentional structure of behavior such that a person or a social practice in declaring something, p, does something to do which is to declare the contradictory of p. Such is the formal structure of “ideology” as Marx conceives of it, and in two successive and different assessments of Christianity, in 1843 (atheist and much influenced by Feuerbach) and 1844 post-atheist, he deems Christianity to be inherently and so unrescuably to possess that ideological form. Christian theologians need to deal with this meta-critique of Christianity before attempting any formulation of a political theology, affirmative or negative.