Christina Smerick

This work purports to examine Walter Benjamin's formative writings in order to expose his reliance upon theological figures and images, derived from Kabbalism and Jewish theology, to create his own philosophical method. Benjamin's use of theological imagery continues throughout his writing corpus, but is most obviously present in the works leading up to his habilitation thesis, The Origin of German Tragic Drama. ;While writing about German thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schlegel, and Goethe, Benjamin nevertheless infuses his essays with references to the Fall of man, sin, guilt, and God, which are theological notions. He does so in order to move philosophy from a quasi-scientific exploration of the limits of knowledge to a more metaphysical position that uses religious teachings as well as philosophical doctrines to explore meaning. Finally, Benjamin's task is to reveal the meaning behind such activities as translation and criticism. These activities are philosophical ones, but derive their philosophical nature from the fact that they are part of the larger task of humanity to rescue the truth from the trappings of the profane world. Examining his essay on Kant, his dissertation on German Romantic criticism, his essays on language and violence, and his habilitation thesis, I argue that theological imagery lies at the heart of Benjamin's early writings and informs his larger philosophical project. While certainly not a theologian, Benjamin nevertheless takes Jewish theology seriously and uses it to ground his work, up to and including his final finished creation, the Theses on the Philosophy of History