'More things in heaven and earth ...': The theological aufhebung of Roland Boer

Abstract: A great philosopher once wrote that 'some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested'. The five volumes of Roland Boer's magisterial series Marxism and Theology may well be all three. Certainly, there is too much in the series to be digested in any one review study. Nevertheless, in what follows, we will attempt in small measure the impossible: first setting out the basic methodological and exegetical claims of the series as we see them (I), before commenting on what we take to be Boer's own theses, constructed on the basis of this remarkable, almost-Baconian 'natural history' of Marxist and post-Marxist texts on theology (II). In Part III, taking up some of the essay's opening, framing remarks, we will pose some reflections on the significance of Boer's study and its place within the widely touted 'return to religion' today, as well as the peculiar physiognomy and reasons for this 'return'.