Jacques

DERRIDA

Christopher Watkin

© 2017 by Christopher Watkin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—except for brief quotations for the purpose of review or comment, without the prior permission of the publisher, P&R Publishing Company, P.O. Box 817, Phillipsburg, New Jersey 08865-0817.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations are from the 2011 text edition of the ESV.

Italics within Scripture quotations indicate emphasis added.

ISBN: 978-1-62995-227-7 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-62995-228-4 (ePub)

ISBN: 978-1-62995-229-1 (Mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Watkin, Christopher, author.

Title: Jacques Derrida / Christopher Watkin.

Description: Phillipsburg : P&R Publishing, 2017. | Series: Great thinkers | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017016902| ISBN 9781629952277 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781629952284 (epub) | ISBN 9781629952291 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Derrida, Jacques. | Deconstruction. | Van Til, Cornelius, 1895-1987. | Philosophy and religion. | Christian philosophy.

Classification: LCC B2430.D484 W38 2017 | DDC 194--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017016902

GREAT THINKERS

A Series

Series Editor

Nathan D. Shannon

To Alison, who waits more graciously,

reads more patiently, and comments more lovingly than I;

and to Benjamin, to add to your bottom shelf.

CONTENTS

Series Introduction

Foreword by Merold Westphal

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Why Derrida Matters Today

The Structure and Approach of This Book

Abbreviations

Part 1: Derrida’s Thought

1. What Is Deconstruction?

Not Meaninglessness but Openness

Logocentrism and Phonocentrism

“There Is Nothing Outside the Text”

Différance

Deconstruction Is Not Just Another Way of Reading

2. Ethics and Politics

The “Mystical Foundation of Authority”

Not Relativism but Incommensurability

“Every Other Is Wholly Other”

Language and Violence

3. Theology

“I Rightly Pass for an Atheist”

The God of Ontotheology

Messianicity without Messianism

Part 2: A Reformed Assessment of Derrida’s Thought

4. Derrida and Van Til: A Chapter Waiting to Be Written

Frame’s Reformed Readings and Misreadings of Derrida

Derrida’s Style and Van Tilian “Epistemological Self-Consciousness”

5. Derrida and Van Til in the Light of John 1:1–18

The Creator-Creature Distinction and “There Is Nothing Outside the Text”

Absolute Personality Theism and Ontotheology

Trinity, Différance, and “Every Other Is Wholly Other”

Accommodation, Language, and Violence

Brute Facts, the Transcendental Signified, and Idolatry

Gift, Recognition, and Praise

Predestination and Messianicity without Messianism

Union with Christ and “I Am Just”

Conclusion

Glossary

Select Bibliography and References...