In Walter Benjamin. Presence of Mind, Failure to Comprehend Stephane Symons offers an innovative reading of the work of German philosopher, essayist and literary critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). Oftentimes interpreted as being either of a theological (Jewish-Messianic) or a materialist (neo-Marxist) nature, Benjamin's writings are here characterized as "neither a-theological, nor immediately theological." Starting from Benjamin's philosophy of history, his interpretation of the work of Franz Kafka, his study on the German Baroque and his critique of modernity, Walter Benjamin....