Negativity in Luke’s Rich Fool and the Abyss of the Cross

This paper argues that the operative force in Luke’s parable of The Rich Fool is negativity. Moreover, negativity is as common in Lukan parables as status reversals. As the parable warns against securing the future, this paper reads Lee Edelman’s No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive to show how negativity, towards reproductive futurism in particular, activates Luke’s pessimism. This pessimism is grounded in the crucifixion and is not resolved in the resurrection. Luke’s pessimism is not only one which expresses his affective diasporic context, but it also invokes doubt on whether Jesus is messiah.