Capitalist Theology

Capitalist Theology and the Magic of the State

For generations now, it has been much remarked
upon by scholars from a wide range of disciplines
that capitalism and the modern nation state are
characterized by elements that have a distinctly
religious quality despite the secular, rational
world view that capitalism and the modern nation
state are said to possess. This course will
investigate instances of what Karl Marx called
commodity fetishism, and what others, following
Marx, have termed 'state fetishism' or the 'magic
of the state'. We will also be looking at
different uses of the figure of the fetish and
discussing their history and relations to
art-making, to social creativity and to protest.