One

The reconstruction attempts of literary theory by Attridge and Eagleton are discussed, introducing the concept of "event" to re-examine traditional topics. Attridge focuses on literary interpretation and the uniqueness of texts, continuing the relevant theoretical tradition; Eagleton emphasizes writing strategies and the integration of reality, using "family resemblance" to summarize the attributes of literature. Both are concerned with the fixed characteristics and dynamic practices of literature, that is, the duality of literature. At the same time, the transformation process of literature from a component of life to an independent object is reviewed, along with the different research directions of essentialist and non-essentialist literary theories, including the conceptual history of literature, archaeology, and genetics. The influences of the printing industry and market laws on literary development are also mentioned.

Two

This chapter delves into the complex relationship between capitalism and religion, particularly from Benjamin's perspective, analyzing how capitalism is homologous with religious structures at social, psychological, and historical levels. Benjamin argues that capitalism is an extreme form of religion, with its economic operations resembling the organizational methods of religion, and the cycle of work and consumption akin to ancient labor and sacrifice. This view is echoed in Wordsworth's poetry, which critiques the modern accumulation/consumption model. Meanwhile, Benjamin points out that capitalism creates a psychological burden similar to religious guilt through the eternity of wealth and debt traps.

The article further explores the analogous perspectives of capitalism and religion, including secular and theological angles. From a secular standpoint, the connection between capitalism and religion is metaphorical rather than factual. Cai Yuanpei's view of "aesthetics replacing religion" exemplifies this metaphorical nature. From a theological perspective, Hegel's speculative philosophy provides a path to link the secular with the religious, connecting wealth with divinity through the concept of freedom. Hegel believes that freedom is based on property rights, and property is the externalized form of freedom, thereby linking wealth with divinity. This view is supported by Lacanian psychology, which argues that the identification of self and other forms the basis of self-production.

The article also discusses the Christian concept of "the Word became flesh," viewing Christ as the personification and materialization of God's idea, while capital serves as a substitute for Christ, representing the secular manifestation of God. This perspective explains the connection between wealth and the infinite glory of God in modern society, as well as the fanatical pursuit of wealth in consumer society. Marx and Engels criticized Hegel's secular theological view, arguing that his dialectics have a theological essence. Strauss also pointed out that Hegel is a secularized theological philosopher, transforming Christianity into a philosophical form.

Finally, the article notes that literature, as a product of modernity, needs to be re-examined in the context of capitalism as religion. This context reveals the complex role of literature in modern society and its profound connections with religion and capitalism.

Three

It explores the relationship between literary aesthetic characteristics and social functions in a capitalist religious society, citing performative theory to explain the intrinsic connection between literature and life. Eagleton uses literary fictionality as an example, arguing that fiction is a social act, and literary language achieves certain effects through speech acts. He regards writing strategies as intermediaries connecting texts with life, with rhetoric incorporating external life into works, and textual forms shaping social issues into subtexts. Eagleton's rhetorical mediation is compared with Jameson's literary criticism model, enriching "mediation poetics." At the same time, from the perspectives of magical and labor theories in the origin of art, the unity of opposites between artistic characteristics and life practices is explored. Sympathetic magic in magical theory resembles rhetoric, sharing a metonymic mode of thinking. Benjamin's mediation connecting art and theology elucidates the appearance of divinity in modern society, where the traditional "aura" of art is destroyed under modern technology, and the exhibition value and cult value of art stand in unity and opposition, with divinity permeating secular forms. Benjamin's allegorical theory and Agamben's structural relationship between secular society and traditional theology reveal the structured existence of divinity in the secular world—the deeper the secularization, the more extensive and hidden the embodiment of religious culture in literary works.

Four

It delves into how the aesthetic value of art and objects in capitalist society reinforces theological expression and how consumer culture transforms the use value of objects into symbolic value. Baudrillard's views are cited to illustrate that in consumption, people focus not only on the functional use of goods but also on their symbolic significance. This worship of objects is a secularized manifestation of theological hierarchy. Lefebvre's concept of alienation further explains how the capitalist economy creates a demand for wealth, shifting people's needs from natural to social, forming a "theological monster" of demand. To break this alienation, it is necessary to restore symbolic value to use value, focus on the real utility of objects, and achieve an awakening of daily life consciousness.

Lenin's proposal regarding gold and Duchamp's "Fountain," along with other performance arts, challenge the illusions of capitalist theology by linking gold and art with everyday objects, dissolving the sublime attributes of gold and art. Agamben's concept of profanation is proposed as a social action strategy, reusing sacred objects for secular purposes and daily life practices, challenging their theological status and sacrificial functions. The instrumental theory of literature in modern Chinese literary history and Heidegger's concept of tools emphasize that literature, as an instrument, has a constructive function on the world and can reveal concealed existential situations.

The instrumental theory of literature reveals its social practice function, allowing the symbolic value of literature to transform into a rhetorical tool for the life of the acting subject and a performative language instrument for ideological change. Literature and life become one, finding a convergence point for texts and actions, challenging the dominance of secular religion and modern exhibition aesthetics, endowing the survival practices of the labor class with cultural significance, and overcoming the dualism of subject and object. Through these theoretical and practical explorations, the chapter proposes that returning literature to practical value and instrumental use is a possible way to counter divinity and provides a path of ideological change for information and emotional laborers to escape theological domination.