Giving birth to the impossible: theology and deconstruction in Johannes Climacus’s Philosophical Fragments
According to Roger Poole, theological interpreters of Søren Kierkegaard’s indirect communication privilege content over form, whereas deconstructive interpreters privilege form over content. Here, I offer a reading of Johannes Climacus’s Philosophical Fragments to illustrate how, in this case, the t...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Taylor & Francis
2021
|
In: |
International journal of philosophy and theology
Year: 2021, Volume: 82, Issue: 2, Pages: 116-135 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Kierkegaard, Søren 1813-1855, Philosophiske smuler
/ Deconstruction
/ Incarnation
|
RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history NBF Christology |
Further subjects: | B
Deconstruction
B Philosophical Fragments B Kierkegaard B Climacus B Derrida |
Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
Summary: | According to Roger Poole, theological interpreters of Søren Kierkegaard’s indirect communication privilege content over form, whereas deconstructive interpreters privilege form over content. Here, I offer a reading of Johannes Climacus’s Philosophical Fragments to illustrate how, in this case, the theology/deconstruction and form/content binaries both break down. The form of Fragments is as theological as it is deconstructive: Climacus’s kaleidoscopic quotation of scripture, and his parabolic tropes both attest to this. Similarly, the content of Fragments is as deconstructive as it is theological: the deferral of names, the madness of the moment of decision, and Climacus’s use of contradiction all unsettle any naïve theology. Ultimately, I suggest, the reason that Fragments resists the form/content and theology/deconstruction binaries is because it is a text about the incarnation – a paradigmatic combination of form and content, and a paradoxical reality that bursts apart any division between theology and deconstruction. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 2169-2335 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: International journal of philosophy and theology
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/21692327.2021.1923557 |