Adorno saw Brechtian atheism as an inverse theology needing rescue but not appropriation.

Evidence

(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!) In addition, it should avoid external communication with social theory as much as possible, for the sake of what it has pledged. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 212

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The notion that Brecht’s atheism is a mirror-image theology — to be saved but never adopted — is the kind of paradox that reframes how theology and materialism relate in the Frankfurt tradition.
• XREF: Ties directly to Adorno’s programmatic statements on the theology-materialism relation and to the Kafka and ‘inverse theology’ strand in Critical Theory.