Symptoms of theology in the writings of Louis Althusser

The aim of the study is to examine Louis Althusser’s writing for traces, theological concepts and theological rhetorical figures. While several of Althusser’s texts discuss the Church as an ideological apparatus - a social organism that reproduces specific ideologies - his work largely sidesteps direct engagement with theology. The article pays special attention to the interpellation theory of the subject and the concept of “overdetermination”. The key thesis of the article is that L. Althussers’ writing can reveal symptoms and traces of theological thought, in particular with regard to one of the most significant motives of L. Althusser’s theory - the general structure of Ideology. As a result, the presence of traces of theological thought is shown in those fragments of L. Althusser’s writing that relate to the interpellation theory of the subject, the material practice of ideology and the determination of the processes of reproduction of the total structure.