Deconstruction and Religion

Deconstruction And Religion

This article discusses those who apply Deconstruction, a method developed by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, to religion.

Those who take a deconstructive approach to religion identify closely with the work of Derrida, especially his work later in life. According to Slavoj Žižek, in the mid-to-late 1980s Derrida's work shifted from constituting a radical negative theology to being a form of Kantian idealism. Similarly, theologian John D. Caputo describes Derrida's work in the 1970s as a Nietzschean 'free play of signifiers' while he describes Derrida's work in the 1990s as a "religion without religion." However, Martin Hagglund refutes claims that deconstruction is a religious discourse seeking transcendence, and shows that the mortal and the transient is the source of value.