In Demonic Territory

Peter Sloterdijk and the Problem of Religious Violence: Onesidedness, Fundamentalism and “Total Membership” in Monotheisms

Abstract

This article will analyze the relationship between monotheism and violence from the perspective deployed by Peter Sloterdijk in In the shadow of Mount Sinai, originally published in 2013. At first, we will argue that the problem of religious violence is framed within a largely worked problem in previous Sloterdijk’s writings: the unilateralism of the action, associated by the thinker both with the great narratives of “hyperactive” modernity and with the “phobocratic” logic of terrorist attacks. In a second moment, we will proceed to delimit the specific intertextual coordinates that, since 2006, underlie the Sloterdijkian approach to religious fundamentalism. This implies not only identifying the interlocutors with whom the German philosopher argues, but also the intimate relationships that In the shadow of Mount Sinai has with two previous texts by the author: God’s Zeal. The Battle of the three monotheisms, of 2007, and You must change your life. On Anthropotechnics, of 2009. Thirdly, we will examine the inner architecture of the 2013 essay through the concept of “total membership”. Finally, as a conclusion, we will outline a general balance of the proposed theme.