Benjamin used theological language while doubting the apparatus he worked within

Evidence

The tone of theological dogma here was characteristic of Benjamin. It allowed him to work in a fruitful and stimulating way with an apparatus whose functioning and solidity he himself had doubts about. Adorno, in a letter to Kracauer of 14 September 1929, described Benjamin as `a dazzling trap set by heaven’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 351

Categorization

• SHARE: Adorno’s quip calling Benjamin ‘a dazzling trap set by heaven’ is a perfect nerdy tidbit for a literature/Walter Benjamin scholar.
• XREF: connects to: Benjamin secularized Jewish messianism into his Marxist theory of revolutionary time — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 600; Adorno supervised Benjamin’s attempt to fuse theology with historical materialism; Benjamin’s interest in Goethe’s Urphänomene showed his theological roots — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 626

Broader Connections

• Benjamin secularized Jewish messianism into his Marxist theory of revolutionary time #expands (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 600
• Adorno supervised Benjamin’s attempt to fuse theology with historical materialism #expands (0.72)
• Benjamin’s interest in Goethe’s Urphänomene showed his theological roots #corroborates (0.70) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 626