Migrants in the Profane (Peter E. Gordon)

The provided text offers excerpts from Peter E. Gordon’s book, Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization, which originated as the Franz Rosenzweig Lectures at Yale University. The central focus is an examination of how Critical Theory—specifically the work of Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor W. Adorno—addressed the complex relationship between theology, secularization, and historical materialism. Gordon analyzes the Frankfurt School's concept of "migration into the profane," exploring how religious ideas persist and retain critical force even after losing their explicitly sacred context. Key discussions revolve around Benjamin's critique of progress and the metaphor of the chess-playing Turk, Horkheimer’s later turn t ...