From: "Warren Goldstein" <wgoldstein-AT-stlawu.edu> Subject: Re: starting the discussion Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 07:16:05 -0400 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. Dear Benjamin list, Sorry for being a little behind in this discussion and for deviating from the last thread on the division of labor. I have been saving these threads and have finally had the chance to read them. Some of you I know from the frankfurt-school list and the conference in Amsterdam. But, for others, let me introduce myself. My dissertation at the New School for Social Research was entitled "Messianism and Marxism: Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch's Dialectical Theories of Secularization." In the dissertation I attempt to explain Benjamin's mixture of Messianism and Marxism through a dialectical conception of secularization. Benjamin has dialectical theories of secularization in his theory of allegory, theory of collective dreaming and awakening, profane illumination and decline of aura. I think the the piece that best illustrates Benjamin's dialectical conception of secularization is the political-theological fragment in which the messianic and profane move simulatenously in opposite directions. Since I have finished the dissertation, I have found myself at a challenge of trying to defend my work to American mainstream sociologists. Perhaps this is a waste of time but having done the dissertation in sociology in the United States, I find myself with no other choice. I am currently working in an essay entitled "Walter Benjamin: A Sociologist?" in book being edited by Mary Ann Romano entitled Lost Sociologists Reconsidered (Edwin Mellen Press). I too am reading Keith Tester's book in an attempt to further develop the argument about his relevance for urban sociology. Most of my research lately has been on the debate within sociology of religion over the theory of secularization. I am attempting to use Benjamin and Bloch's connection to Weber and Marx to further develop a dialectical conception of secularization to be used against more mainstream arguments prevalent within sociology of religion. I do look forward to being part of the list. Sincerely, Warren S. Goldstein Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Sociology St. Lawrence University Canton, NY 13617 voice: (315) 229-5201 fax: (315) 229- 5803 e-mail: wgoldstein-AT-stlawu.edu P.S. Does anybody know how I can get that issue of Critical Inquiry?
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