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{"id":14562,"date":"2020-02-05T05:48:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T09:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/?p=14562"},"modified":"2020-02-06T06:53:15","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T10:53:15","slug":"a-christian-review-of-jacques-derrida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2020\/02\/a-christian-review-of-jacques-derrida\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christian Review of Jacques Derrida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Christopher Watkin\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\nDerrida <\/em>(Great Thinkers).<\/em> \u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\nP&R Publishing, 2017.
\nAvailable at P&R<\/a> and\u00a0 Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

By Andy Judd<\/p>\n

Christopher Watkin has achieved something rare and delightful \u2013 an insightful and accessible introduction to, and engagement with, Derrida\u2019s thought from a reformed Christian perspective (follow him at twitter\u00a0@DrChrisWatkin).<\/p>\n

This book is a well written missile of brevity and clarity. In the first part of the book, Watkin explains what Derrida is all about with the effortless grace and good humour of a seasoned teacher. Many such introductions to secular theorists make me cringe at either their lazy enthusiasm for half digested ideas, or their unsympathetic alarmism that hasn\u2019t felt the weight of the argument before dogmatically dismissing it. This book avoids both errors. As a teacher and researcher in French studies, Watkin is able to offer a sympathetic and nuanced reading of Derrida\u2019s work based on the original French texts.<\/p>\n

In the second part of his book, Watkin moves from careful description to a compelling and creative engagement with Derrida\u2019s ideas from a reformed Christian perspective. For me, the secret to the success of this section is his decision to engage with Derrida, not as if speaking on behalf of some generic Christian inquisitor, but by putting him in conversation with one particular worthy interlocutor, Cornelius Van Til. This shifts the mode of the discussion closer towards an exercise in comparative philosophy than a theological assessment.<\/p>\n

Framed in this way, the discussion reveals a Christian worldview which is not reactive or defensive, but exhilarating in its life-giving coherence; as Watkin memorably concludes, \u201cDeconstruction does not see biblical Christianity coming.\u201d Watkin describes the recurring structure of this surprise as \u201cdiagonalization\u201d, meaning that Christianity disrupts the categories assumed by deconstruction and<\/em> by its opponents, cutting across the established battle lines in interesting (diagonal) ways. The central resource for this disruption is John\u2019s prologue, which tells of the ultimate diagonal disruption: the Word made flesh. Believing that we can reach for and capture the ineffable in language may be idolatrous, but so (it turns out) is Derrida\u2019s iconoclastic refusal out of hand to let God speak for himself.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m often asked to recommend a book for non-specialists who want to engage with postmodern ideas from the perspective of faith, and until now all I have been able to come up with is a sheepish shrug. But no longer! Now, finally, here is the book I can wholeheartedly recommend.<\/p>\n

Andrew Judd is lecturer in theology at Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"