The purpose of this article is to discuss the relationship between Walter Benjamin and Marxism. For Benjamin, XXth century's historic conditions showed in capitalism a greater capacity for resistance than Marx imagined to be possible: praxis opposes itself to the radical theorization of the Social Democrats. The greatest opposition, however, which separates these two thinkers, is the messianic vision of Walter Benjamin's philosophy: but the real Messiah ends up being humanity itself. Would Benjamin then be a philosopher, a theologian or rather a theorist who helps us to reflect upon Marxism itself?
Walter Benjamin; Marxism; messianism