Adorno demanded the Passagen preserve its theological content against Brechtian atheism.

Evidence

What you write about the end of your essay period, and above all about starting work on the Passagen, is really the best news I have heard from you for many years. You know I see this work as truly the one piece of prima philosophia which has been given to us, and my one wish is that you will be as strong and as capable of carrying it out, after a long and painful break, as the scale of the task requires. And if I might offer your work something of what I hope for it as it starts on its way, without your taking this as immodesty, then it would be this: that it should ruthlessly bring to fruit all of the theological content and literalness in the most extreme theses which have been invested in it. (To be precise, it should have a ruthless disregard for the objections of that Brechtian atheism which, as an inverse theology, we may one day have to save, but which it is not our task to appropriate!) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 780

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to earlier claims about Benjamin fusing theology with historical materialism and the dialectical theology of chapter 14. — connects to: Adorno wanted kindness and pity suspended, appearing only implicitly like theological motifs — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1110; Adorno supervised Benjamin’s attempt to fuse theology with historical materialism; Benjamin’s Passagen-Werk notes pursued contradictory research intentions simultaneously. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 799 (+1 more)
• DEFINE: Introduces the idea of ‘inverse theology’ used for Brechtian atheism.

Broader Connections

• Adorno supervised Benjamin’s attempt to fuse theology with historical materialism #expands (0.88)
• Adorno wanted kindness and pity suspended, appearing only implicitly like theological motifs #qualifies (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1110