Emancipatory Faith: Reflection on Alain Badiou and the Christians for National Liberation

Abstract

Although Badiouian political thought maintains an obvious distance from theology, theisms, and all forms of transcendental conceptualizations of human liberation, it does allow the most universal form of democratic mass participation, including by Christian believers. This crossover, far from being a domination of either politics or religion, is possible because of their common affirmation of and fidelity to an Event. This paper aims to show the crossover between the radical politics of Alain Badiou and the revolutionary potential of the Christian religion proposed by a revolutionary organization. It further clarifies that radical politics, which seemingly veers towards atheism, and religion can be united to a common conception of democracy and emancipation. Drawing from this crossover, this paper criticizes the current notions of democracy espoused and preached under the current system, and presents a more genuine notion of the same. The discussion hinges on the more than four decades of ardent revolutionary struggle of the Christians for National Liberation (CNL), a revolutionary Christian mass organization in the Philippines.

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Keywords

Emancipation politics, Christians for National Liberation, Event, subject, fidelity, National Democratic Revolution