The Wordly Messianism of Charity

Abstract

The framework of this paper is a lesser known book by Kierkegaard – the Works of Love – and two related articles by Theodor Adorno and Gábor Boros. I analyse the concept of neighbour-love (charity) and re-conceptualise it as worldly Messianism. The main claim of this paper is the following: neighbour-love’s symmetrical relation conflicts the necessarily hierarchical and asymmetrical relation-system of worldly governance. Silently, though charity always entails the critical praxis of worldly governance as well.