Sestinas, farce, and rules of religious life: the performative theology of Giorgio Agamben

Abstract It is time that Giorgio Agamben’s interest in theology—and in particular theology’s literary presentation—was investigated. Ever since the celebrated The Time That Remains, Agamben’s reading of theological sources—Scripture, the Fathers, Scholastics, Liturgy, even—has been more obvious to those with eyes to see. But of particular interest to this Journal, is the way in which that deep theological interest is allied to Agamben’s long association with literature and literary theory. The theory of performative utterances is a particular feature of Agamben’s approach, albeit, similarly, passed over in the secondary literature. And the way Agamben appropriates that debate, preferring the work of the French linguist Émile Benveniste over J. L. Austin, is a distinctive contribution to the ongoing fascination with speech-acts. This article is only able to scratch the surface in terms of its implications for theology, and, indeed, for philosophy.