Thread by @AimeTim

1/ Continuing my threads on Où suis-je? (see previous threads) – chapter 6 provides an example of @BrunoLatourAIME’s constructive interpretation of Christianity as a religion that can inculcate forms of attentiveness & responsibility with respect to our Gaian interconnectedness.

2/ Lockdown has been interesting for “les âmes religieuses”: after all, these people normally have their eyes fixed on the hereafter, & yet lockdown has forced them to appreciate the significance of the “ici-bas”, for a while at least! (p.66).

3/ The religious “above” was never intended to indicate a topography or spatiality; rather, “l’envol vers un au-delà de paix, de recompense et de salut” (p.67) was intended to inspire forms of sympathy, co-belligerence & peace for those who live down here, the poor & downtrodden.

4/ However, all that has been obscured by the importation of the “co-ordinates” of Modernity from the 17th century onwards; this imposed upon this original religious-spatial schema the foreign notion of Cartesian “extended substance”.

5/ In modernity, Christianity is skewed: the heavenly & eschatological "above" becomes not a motivation for good deeds (as it should be), but a site that is (somehow) attainable to those with means, that is to say, through western modes of technicity, Capitalism & snobbery.

6/ For Latour, this deadly form of “politicized religion” underlies our modern, secular being; it encourages “la quete du Paradis, mais sur terre” (p.69), & thus engenders asymmetry, hegemony & denunciation of those who do not have the means to follow. The religion of Elon Musk!

7/ Latour here once again shows his interest in Eric Voegelin’s diagnosis of the “immanentizing” forces of secular religiosity, as described in his wonderful l938 essay “The Political Religions”.

8/ Most of all, the “religion of Modernity”, which Latour has described in various works since 1991, occludes that most precious value – attention to the delicate networks that undergird life on Earth. It constitutes “un projet explicite de fuite definitive hors du monde” (p.75).

9/ By contrast, “les terrestres” know there is nowhere else to flee other than this Earth. And they search for a value that will motivate the work that is now needed. Where can it be found? Well, by no means in secular social or political theory!

10/ As always, Latour finds the most precious value needed to face the present times in ... religion. In fact, in Laudato Si’ (and, I would add, in the v. interesting recent encyclical Fratelli Tutti): “c’est la chance que saisit pour eux le pape François” (p.74).

11/ What is it about recent Catholic Social Thought that Latour finds so refreshing? It is the way it promotes an ethic based on life 'with' the Earth, “la vie avec Terre” (p.74) – not life on or in spite of or against the Earth.

12/ He points to a number of tropes found within Catholic Social Thought, & Christian systematic theology in general, that he thinks can help here:

13/ Incarnation: “la figure de l’incarnation résonne avec celle de l’atterrissage” (p.74).

14/ Or even eschatology: Latour points to his reading of a rather obscure book, Westhalle, "Eschatology and Space", which was recommended to him by @nemoid321, & which has revolutionised his understanding of “the end times” as a resource for politics. palgrave.com/gp/book/978023…

15/ In summary, this chapter is very important in the evolving context of the book, once again providing evidence that “political theology” is the crucial & indispensable category by which to analyse Latour’s recent thought.