Christianity Appears First as Itself: Alain Badiou and the Study of Christian Origins

This dissertation introduces the philosophy of Alain Badiou into conversation with the academic discourse known as “Christian Origins.” The dissertation functions on the assumption that Christianity is an event-based subjectivity and therefore benefits from an event-based philosophy to think through its conditions. In this way, I locate the emergence of Christianity directly with the proclamation of its primal event, and not with later institutional formulations, separating the topic of emergence from traditional patterns of belief. While it is possible to study early Christianity without reference to exceptional events, I map out a relationship between Christianity’s primal event and the appearance of early Christianity as a distinct yet diverse political body. In doing this, the event may serve as a helpful organizing principle with which to map out the development of early Christianity as a distinct subjective group, providing greater insight into the diversity of Christ groups as they seek to maintain fidelity to an event they believe happened. Christ groups form, prophets compete, theologies develop or die—but not for nothing—they organize as a consequence of the event. The dissertation begins with a history of scholarship, noting how the discourse of Christian Origins has been configured in two main strategies: Hegelian rationalism and Nietzschean genealogical method. Both methods diminish the category of the event in the study of Christian Origins, leaving the scholar to choose between Christian Apologetic accounts of origins, or deconstruction. The second chapter introduces the philosophy of Alain Badiou, as it pertains to the study of Christian Origins. Though not a Christian theologian, Badiou’s rigorous account of truth and its conditions (based on events) is found to be a helpful model from which to construct a theory of Christian Origins. Chapter three maps out the work of Badiou onto the book of Revelation, as a “case study” for the trajectory of an event. In this case study, I map out Badiou’s conceptual framework onto the book of Revelation, with interesting results. The conclusion chapter investigates trajectories for both the formal study of religion and also trajectories for theological studies, as they pertain to Badiou’s ontology.

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