In The Time That Remains, Agamben seeks to separate the Pauline texts from the history of the Church that canonized them, thus revealing them to be the fundamental messianic texts of the West.”  He argues that Paul’s letters are concerned not with the foundation of a new religion but rather with the messianic” abolition of Jewish law.  Situating Paul’s texts in the context of early Jewish messianism, this book is part of a growing set of recent critiques devoted to the period when Judaism and Christianity were not yet fully distinct, placing Paul in the context of what has been called Judaeo-Christianity.” Agamben’s philosophical exploration of the problem of messianism leads to the other major figure discussed in this book, Walter Benjamin.  Advancing a claim without precedent in the vast literature on Benjamin, Agamben argues that Benjamin’s philosophy of history constitutes a repetition and appropriation of Paul’s concept of remaining time.”  Through a close reading and comparison of Benjamin’s Theses on the Philosophy of History” and the Pauline Epistles, Agamben discerns a number of striking and unrecognized parallels between the two works.

The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) PDF

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