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About this episode

Slavoj Žižek is a professor at the Institute for Sociology, Ljubljana, and at the European Graduate School. All you need to know, though, is that he's like the Werner Herzog of continental philosophy. I got to see Zizek speak at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, a conference where academics and clergy from all faiths and countries converge to discuss God and the meaning of life. Zizek was part of a session on "The Death of God." Some of the ground that Zizek covered was how the world is an unfair and unjust place, but it's not because it's all part of God's greater plan. Rather, it's just that the universe is imperfect and full of bulls**t, so we have to all work together to deal with it (which ties in nicely with his brand of Marxism). He explored themes such as how when Jesus died on the cross, it was like God committed suicide, as well as his own interpretation of the book of Job. The clip is a long one (35 min), but if you have a short attention span, fast-forward to the last 5 minutes, his conclusion.

• Release Date

  Nov 21, 2009

• Runtime

  35:07