Tratados e fragmentos: teologia e política em Espinosa e Walter Benjamin

This article aims at articulating some elements that can be found in the works of Baruch Spinoza and Walter Benjamin, two philosophers historically set in different traditions. Despite this difference, both philosophers are particularly focused on unveiling the theological elements which constitute political structures. The critique of historicism set by Benjamin in two of his most hermetic works – Thesis about History and the Theological- Political Fragment – can resonate some concepts brought up by Spinoza (notably, his critique of religion) in two of his central works, the Theological- Political Treatise and the Ethics. If religion can be understood as a series of associations between practices and rules – and its simultaneity sets the path for the dominant position of religion in society, is it possible to relate this concept to some cornerstones of Benjamin’s theory, such as his views of History as ‘the winners’ tale” and Capitalism as a “social religion”?