The Kingdom and the Garden

by Giorgio Agamben, Adam Kotsko (Translator)

Da più di due millenni il paradiso terrestre, il giardino piantato da Dio in Eden, è stato per il mondo occidentale il paradigma di ogni possibile felicità degli uomini sulla terra. E, tuttavia, esso è fin dall'inizio anche il luogo da cui la natura umana, caduta e corrotta, è stata irrevocabilmente scacciata. Da una parte, tutti i sogni rivoluzionari dell'umanità possono esser visti come l'instancabile tentativo di rientrare nell'Eden, sfidando i guardiani che ne custodiscono l'accesso, dall'altra il giardino resta invece come una sorta di traumatismo originario che condanna al fallimento ogni ricerca di felicità sulla terra. In entrambi i casi, il paradiso è essenzialmente un paradiso perduto e la natura umana qualcosa di essenzialmente manchevole. Attraverso una critica serrata della dottrina agostiniana del peccato originale e una rilettura del paradiso dantesco, la ricerca di Agamben prova invece a pensare il paradiso terrestre non come un passato perduto né come un futuro a venire, ma come la figura ancora e sempre presente e attuale della natura umana e della giusta dimora degli uomini sulla terra. Un paradigma politico, dunque, da articolare e distinguere dal regno millenario, che ha fornito il modello alle utopie di ogni specie. Se solo il regno può dare accesso al giardino, solo il giardino rende pensabile il regno.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Nonfiction, Religion, Theory

164 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2019

About the author

Giorgio Agamben is one of the leading figures in Italian and contemporary continental philosophy. He is the author of Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life; Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive; Profanations; The Signature of All Things: On Method, and other books. Through the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s he treated a wide range of topics, including aesthetics, literature, language, ontology, nihilism, and radical political thought.

In recent years, his work has had a deep impact on contemporary scholarship in a number of disciplines in the Anglo-American intellectual world. Born in Rome in 1942, Agamben completed studies in Law and Philosophy with a doctoral thesis on the political thought of Simone Weil, and participated in Martin Heidegger’s seminars on Hegel and Heraclitus as a postdoctoral scholar.

He rose to international prominence after the publication of Homo Sacer in 1995. Translated into English in 1998, the book’s analyses of law, life, and state power appeared uncannily prescient after the attacks on New York City and Washington, DC in September 2001, and the resultant shifts in the geopolitical landscape. Provoking a wave of scholarly interest in the philosopher’s work, the book also marked the beginning of a 20-year research project, which represents Agamben’s most important contribution to political philosophy.

Reviews

[Hanieh Sadat Shobeiri · Rating 2 out of 5]

نمی‌دونم چه واکنش شیمیایی‌ای توی مغز مترجم اتفاق افتاده که باعث شده بود تصمیم بگیره جملات لاتینی که نویسنده بهش رفرنس داده بود رو با تلفظ فارسی کنار معنیش بنویسه! این حرکتش انقدر خوندن کتاب رو سخت و روند خوندنش رو اعصاب‌خوردکن کرده بود که نمی‌تونم توصیف کنم!

مثلاً:
پردیس زمینی حاصلخیز است، یعنی نفسی پرثمر که در عدن کاشته شده و معنای آن لذت است. اِست ارگو پارادیسوس تراکوایدام فِرتله، هوک اِست آنیما فوئکوندا، این دِن پلانتا.

یا اینو ببینید که چطوری این تلفظ‌ها رو دقیقاً وسط جمله می‌آره، جوری که جمله قطع میشه و تمرکز مخاطب موقع خوندنش از بین می‌ره:
بنابراین آدمی یا به خاطر انتظار حیاتی واپسین یا زندگی در این زندگی سایه‌گون ما در زمین (اومبرا اِست هایک کوآی نونک نوسترا اِست ویتا این ترا) در سایه می‌زیست یا در نوعی ضمان زندگی (این کوئودام پیگنوره ویتای) قرار داشت.

دقیقاً قصد مترجم چی بوده این جا؟ راحت‌تر کردن مطالعه؟
یعنی مترجم احتمال اینو نداده که مخاطب همچنین کتابی قطعاً یه چیزی از الفبای لاتین حالیش می‌شده و اصلاً نیازی به تلفظ فارسی نداره؟ خیلی منطقی‌تر نبود که رفرنس می‌زد و لاتینش رو پایین صفحه می‌نوشت؟
این می‌تونست برای منِ مخاطب فارسی‌زبان، یه تجربه‌ی جذاب در حد سه ستاره باشه ولی خب من به شخصه نتونستم کتاب رو تموم کنم.
حیف.

[Kimia · Rating 5 out of 5]

راهنمای تفکر و سنجش و قضاوت شخصی هرگونه خلاء فکری در زمینه رستگاری

[Morabito · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro es bueno. Agamben es un pensador muy bueno e incisivo. Desgraciadamente este libro tiene muchísimas citas en latín que el traductor (o Agamben, o el editor de esta edición) no se tomó el tiempo de traducir. Yo entiendo que muchos libros que utilizan la filología como lo hace aquí Agamben, nunca traducen, pero tomando en cuenta que esta editorial en general es de divulgación y no para especialistas, me parece un gran error no hacerlo. En todo caso, debido a esto la lectura se hace tediosa y se entorpece. Asimismo, queda advertido el lector, que no es un libro fácil y que se da por sentado bastante conocimiento sobre discusiones teológicas entre San Agustín, Erígena, Tomás y otros pensadores.

[michal k-c · Rating 3 out of 5]

so man has never actually been in prelapsarian paradise. so what. i've never been to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville in Las Vegas Nevada. i assume these types of locales are the reason for differentiating between paradise and earthly paradise

[Luis Agustín Txanpongile Münasteriotar · Rating 4 out of 5]

No es una paja mental, cosa que se agradece y que no va de suyo cuando se trata de Agamben. Nada de umbrales ni de aporías constitutivas de la política de occidente. Pura teología, como un puñetazo en la tripa.

[Garrett Mikulka · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I’ve said before, I think Agamben is an excellent interlocutor with the church. Here, he examines the Western Christian tradition’s understanding of the Garden of Eden and the implications it has for an understanding of human nature and, by extension, politics and society.

Agamben argues that Augustine’s doctrine of original sin forced the Church to understand the Garden as a place of the absolute past, never to be regained in its earthly form, placing salvation and resurrection in Heaven alone. As the argument goes, this emphasis on the cosmological diminishes the potential for hope and justice on earth.

As an alternative, Agamben turns towards Orthodox thinkers to give the earthly paradise more significance in political and social thought. Radically simplified, the Orthodox position Agamben explores places sin outside of human nature itself, recognizing it as an exodus from that nature rather than a part of it. Perfection, then, is the natural state of humanity (as opposed to a perfection that is defined as a natural or animal state that is then imbued with an additional grace) reflecting God’s nature. This argument pays off in understanding the Garden as not sanctioned in an absolute past but instead existing in Messianic time, an already-not-yet unrestricted by linear time.

Agamben goes further with this point through a discussion of Dante, though that section was admittedly the weakest.

Compared to other works I’ve read by Agamben, this one seemed less able to integrate theology and political philosophy, which I understand to be the express goal. I can imagine that being a disappointment for many readers, though I didn’t really mind, but I’ve always been more interested in the theological implications anyway. To that end, however, given that this was such a short book, one more chapter could have tied it all together in a more concrete way.

This was an interesting and unexpected complement to my current exploration of Orthodox theology. This book’s brevity puts it high on my recommended list.

[Viraj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting but I haven’t read Dante

The book is a discussion of how we should consider the idea of the garden of Eden, as laid out in Genesis: is it something we as humans can return to and strive towards? Or is it something we’re doomed to be excluded from forever. Canonical catholicism claims the latter, but this began with some questionable reasoning from Augustine (which Agamben discusses in great detail), and the idea of Eden has been considered differently by other equally brilliant minds such as Eriugena and Dante.

Agamben wants to conclude that Augustine is a bit full of it, Eriugena and Dante are much more interesting, and that the Eden idea is something we can strive towards. And probably the idea of original sin is not really worth its salt (unless you’re trying to justify the necessity of baptism and the institution of the church).

I particularly enjoyed the first part of the book with its discussion of Augustine’s interpretation of the early bible and other works in order to make an argument for original sin— a feature of catholic christianity which (I wasn’t aware) didn’t exist prior to Augustine, and whose origins and motivations are deemed pretty suspect by Agamben.

Specifically, Agamben accuses Augustine of engaging in motivated reasoning, coming up with the necessity of original sin to justify the necessity of the institution of the Church and of the scrament of baptism. At some point Augustine flat out says that if there’s no original sin then Jesus died in vain. Augustine also begins to consider the story of the garden of Eden as a *literal place* rather than allegorical (as he did earlier in life). All this reads to me as pretty suspicious reasoning on Augustine’s part.

I’d also never heard of Eriugena prior (perhaps more out of my own lack of education than his actual obscurity), and was thoroughly fascinated to learn more about him.

I skimmed most of the parts on Dante since I haven’t read the Divine Comedy, sadly. Maybe I’ll get to that next.

[Polak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnífico ensayo sobre la felicidad del hombre en el mundo, partiendo de su inocencia en el Edén así como su origen en pecado, hasta llegar al advenimiento del reino expiatorio. Maravilloso recorrido por la teología adánica.

[Attasit Sittidumrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

กล่าวตามตรง เล่มนี้ถือเป็นเล่มที่อ่านยากเล่มหนึ่งของผู้เขียน ที่บอกว่ายากนั้นไม่ใช่เพราะสไตล์การเขียน มากเท่ากับเนื้อหาเองซึ่งมุ่งเจาะลึกและตีความคำสอนทางเทววิทยาและการเมืองของคริศต์ศาสนายุคโบราณและมาจนถึงยุคกลางและยุคสมัยใหม่ ผ่านงานเขียนของนักเทววิทยา และนักเขียนหลายๆ คน การอ่านหนังสือเล่มนี้ให้เข้าใจจริงๆ จึงต้องมีความเข้าใจประเด็นทางคริสต์ศาสนา เทววิทยา ตลอดจนวรรณกรรมอิตาเลี่ยน มากพอสมควร อย่างไรก็ตาม แม้จะอ่านไม่ค่อยเข้าใจ แต่สิ่งหนึ่งที่เห็นได้ชัดเจนคือความเป็นนักนิรุกติศาสตร์และนักค้นคว้าทางประวัติศาสตร์ของอกัมเบนซึ่งทำได้อย่างน่าทึ่ง โดยเฉพาะการไล่เทียบคำศัพท์ข้ามภาษาในภาษาโบราณอย่างกรีกโบราณกับฮีบรูและอารบิก ถือได้ว่าแม้อาจอ่านงานของผู้เขียนไม่ค่อยรู้เรื่อง แต่ความไม่ค่อยรู้เรื่องนั้นก็มิได้บดบังความยอดเยี่ยมทางวิชาการของผู้เขียนแต่อย่างใด

[Andrés Serresiete · Rating 4 out of 5]

El bueno de Agamben

[Graham Hoppstock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this for the cover, but it ended up being extremely good.

[Gustavo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Es un poco , lento y aburrido.

[Valdemar Gomes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apesar de ser um tema aborrecido e do qual não tenho nenhum interesse, está bem explorado o tema. O que ao início era misterioso, muito cedo foi aborrecido mas foi conquistando terreno capítulo a capítulo.

[Michi Okahata · Rating 3 out of 5]

The acceleration of technology in the last century is laden with theological significance. The relationship is straight-forward: energy : bomb :: automation : misalignment :: genesis : revelation. Celebration and critique, accounts of creation and catastrophe, converge on biblical analogy. Agamben's revision cautions against this common ground. Polemics that adopt the doctrine of original sin inherit a transcendent economy of salvation, only a god can save us now.

[j]

surprised it hasn't been fleshed out before. his reading of eriugena's plato places the animal category in a run against the aristotelian grain, which i thought was interesting. ill have to revisit the Dante with a friend later.