Revolution and Revelation: Joan of Arc-A Saint for our Time?

With the breakdown of contemporary philosophy that sunders philosophy from praxis, it becomes increasingly clear that we must seek new ways of relating materialism and idealism. This essay examines how a Marxist notion of revolution and materialism can relate to religious forms of revelation in such a way as to provide new models for a political theology that is not wedded to either the institutional church or the nationstate. I show that the firm dichotomy that separates materialism from idealism is itself unable to stabilize this separation, and I argue for an intertwining model of materialism and idealism through an analysis of a Marxist notion of revolution and a theological notion of revelation. In the end, I show that a certain theological structure can account for the intertwining of both idealism and materialism without resorting to either idealist or materialist models and presuppositions. I explore the example of Charles Peguy's "Joan of Arc," a revolutionary figure who acts on revelation.