Precarious secularity stems from obscured intentions between persons, not nature.

Evidence

Thus when Benjamin distinguishes between subject and object he begins not with the contrast between self and nature (as de Man does) but with the opposition between persons. It is the obscurity of intentions not of objects that generates suspicion, desire, and deceit in the exercise of power, and that makes a simple resort to sincerity impossible. Benjamin’s baroque is a social world to which allegory and not symbol is central. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 314

Categorization

• DEFINE: Contrasts Benjamin’s person-to-person starting point for subject/object with de Man’s self/nature one, clarifying two distinct secular epistemologies.