Left Accelerationism as a Messianism: a Dialogue between Left Accelerationism and Saint Paul

Abstract

In this article, I propose that Left Accelerationism is better characterized as a messianism rather than as a variant of accelerationism. To argue for this claim, I establish a dialogue between Left Accelerationism and the messianic turn to Saint Paul in the 1990s by authors such as Agamben, Badiou, and Žižek. I suggest that the crucial analogy between both currents lies in the notion of the exception, to which Van der Heiden’s recent work on Saint Paul has recently drawn the attention. The Pauline principle of the spirit introduces an exception that does not follow from the immanent laws of the world, yet it transforms this world. Accordingly, the exception allows the philosophers of the messianic turn to Paul to navigate between immanence and transcendence. Similarly, Left Accelerationism proposes to reorient the immanent, accelerative dynamics of capitalism towards a post-capitalist society, but these dynamics can only be repurposed from an “outside”. This leads Left Accelerationism to an impasse and an indefinite postponement of the post-capitalist horizon. Finally, I sketch some directions towards a Marxist critique of accelerationism and/or messianism.