MATERIALISMO E TEOLOGIA EM ADORNO: SOBRE O JUDAÍSMO.

The paper introduces the theoretical and practical materialism of Theodor Adorno presenting his more explicit sources relating to his theories. It presents Adorno's proposals about the role of Judaism in the history of the Enlightement. Observing his appreciation for Judaism and antipathy for Christianity, we seek to examine and understand the causes of this differential attitude. Afterward, we reflect upon the impact that the resumption of a negative transcendence, based upon the Jewish prohibition of images, had on the materialistic thought of Adorno. His distinction between image and transcendence has started a negative theology, which, coupled with the Kantian difference between the empirical and the transcendental approaches, becomes the basis of negative dialectics. With this philosophical criticism, Adorno opposes the Hegelian point of view about Judaism's belief in the abstract unity of the absolute and shows it to be inferior to the Christian view of the spiritual unity between the concrete and the abstract. The paper ends by observing that religious heritage is behind the most advanced criticism of religion. To criticize religion we need to become more aware of the pitfalls surrounding the dialectics in modern materialism and religion, and also in philosophy and theology dialectics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]