Dialectics and deconstruction as a framework of the radical theology

Dmitriy A. Sko­ro­du­mov
Nation­al Research Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod

Dialec­tics and decon­struc­tion as a frame­work of the rad­i­cal the­ol­o­gy

Abstract. The arti­cle demon­strates the philo­soph­i­cal con­tent of the rad­i­cal the­ol­o­gy and expos­es two main groups of the prin­ci­ples which the­olo­gians involve to build their “sys­tems” – the prin­ci­ples of dialec­tics and decon­struc­tion. The arti­cle reveals the essence of the rad­i­cal the­ol­o­gy as reli­gious think­ing that attempts to expe­ri­ence and over­come the “death of God”. The author pon­ders the gen­e­sis of rad­i­cal the­ol­o­gy in Friedrich Nietzsche’s works – the gen­e­sis expressed as the dis­ap­pear­ance of objec­tive truth; and in the works by Hegel, who rep­re­sent­ed God as a dialec­ti­cal process of self-nega­tion. D. Bon­ho­ef­fer is con­ceived as a suc­ces­sor of the dialec­ti­cal method; he imple­ments a main fea­ture of dialec­tics that is the spec­u­la­tive rec­on­cil­i­a­tion of the oppo­sites; it appears in the form of a com­bi­na­tion of an attrac­tion to the faith and cult, and at the same time with rec­og­niz­ing that reli­gious prac­tices are unnec­es­sary. This con­tra­dic­tion is devel­oped in T. Altizer’s and W. Hamilton’s works dis­clos­ing the present world in a trag­ic light. Finite­ness and hope­less­ness are the main cat­e­gories of their think­ing. God is a dialec­ti­cal process that is ful­ly revealed in mod­ern times, elim­i­nat­ing all mys­tery and oth­er­ness embod­ied in real­i­ty. Decon­struc­tion the­ol­o­gy is pre­sent­ed by M. Tay­lor, J. Caputo and G. Vat­ti­mo who build ontol­ogy on frame­work of Derrida‘s phi­los­o­phy, pre­sent­ing the world as an infi­nite net­work of sig­ni­fiers. They turn God into the uncer­tain idea of cre­ativ­i­ty. At the end of the arti­cle, there is an attempt to reveal con­tra­dic­tions between the two kinds of rad­i­cal the­ol­o­gy.

Key­words: rad­i­cal the­ol­o­gy, dialec­tic, decon­struc­tion, Caputo, Vat­ti­mo, Tay­lor, Altiz­er, Der­ri­da, finite­ness, game.

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20181222

Ref­er­ences:

  1. Altiz­er, T. Evan­gelie khris­tian­sko­go ateiz­ma [The Gospel of Chris­t­ian Athe-ism.] / Yu.R. Seli­v­anov (transl.). Moscow: Kanon+, 2010. 224 p. (In Russ­ian)
  2. Badiou, A. Apos­tol Pavel. Obosno­vanie uni­ver­sal­iz­ma [Saint Paul. La fon­da­tion de I’universalisme.] Moscow: Uni­ver­sitet­skaya kni­ga, 1999. 66 p. (In Russ­ian)
  3. Bokov, G.E. “Spet­si­fi­ka sekul­yarnoy teologii i prob­le­my khris­tian­sko­go samoopre­de­leniya v sovre­men­nom mire” [The speci­fici­ty of sec­u­lar the­ol­o­gy and prob­lems of Chris­t­ian iden­ti­ty in the mod­ern world.], Vest­nik SPbGU. Series 17, Phi­los­o­phy, con­flic­tol­ogy, cul­tur­ol­o­gy, region­al stud­ies. 2013. Iss. 1. pp. 108–112. (In Russ­ian)
  4. Bon­ho­ef­fer, D. Sopro­tivle­nie i poko­rnost. [Wider­stand und Erge­bung.] / A.B. Grig­orev (transl.). Moscow: Progress, 1994. 344 p. (In Russ­ian)
  5. Caputo, J.D. “Spec­tral Hermeneu­tics”, in: J. Caputo, G. Vat­ti­mo. After the Death of God / J. Rob­bins (ed.). New York: Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2007, pp. 47–85.
  6. Caputo, J.D. The Weak­ness of God: A The­ol­o­gy of the Event. Bloom­ing­ton, Indi­anapo­lis: Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2006. 299 p.
  7. Der­ri­da, J. Poz­it­sii. [Posi­tions.] / V.V. Bibikhin (transl.). Moscow: Aka­demich­eskiy proekt, 2007. 160 p. (In Russ­ian)
  8. Grigg, R. Gods after God: an intro­duc­tion to con­tem­po­rary rad­i­cal the­o­lo-gies. Albany: State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York Press, 2006. 173 p.
  9. Hamil­ton, W., Altiz­er, T. Rad­i­cal The­ol­o­gy and the Death of God. Indi­an-apo­lis: Bobbs-Mer­rill Com­pa­ny, 1966. 202 p.
  10. Hegel, G. Fenom­e­nologiya dukha. [Phänom­e­nolo­gie des Geistes.] / G. Shpet. (transl.). St. Peters­burg: Nau­ka, 2006. 443 p. (In Russ­ian)
  11. Heltzel, P. “The Weak­ness of God”, Jour­nal for Cul­tur­al and Reli­gious The­o­ry. 2006. Vol.6. No. 3. P. 96–101.
  12. Hyman, G. A Short His­to­ry of Athe­ism. Lon­don: I.B. Tau­ris, 2010. 232 p.
  13. Hyp­po­lite, J. Logi­ka i sushch­estvo­vanie. [Logique et exis­tence. Essai sur la logiquie de Hegel.] / V.Yu. Bystrov (transl.). St. Peters­burg: Vladimir-Dal, 320 p. (In Russ­ian)
  14. Losev, A.F. Dialek­ti­ka mifa [Dialec­tics of myth] / A.A. Tahoe-Godi, V.P. Troit­skiy (eds.). Moscow: Mysl, 2001. 558 p.
  15. Niet­zsche, F. Volya k vlasti. Opyt pereot­sen­ki vsekh tsen­nos­tey. [Der Wille zur Macht.] / Gert­syk et al (transl.). Moscow: Kul­tur­naya Revolyut­siya, 2005. 880 p. (In Russ­ian)
  16. Peter­son, D.J. Res­ur­rect­ing the Death of God: The Ori­gins, Influ­ence, and Return of Rad­i­cal The­ol­o­gy. Albany: State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York Press, 2011. 218 p.
  17. Rob­bins, J.W. “Intro­duc­tion: After the Death of God”, in: J.W. Rob­bins. Af-ter the Death of God. New York: Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2007, pp. 1–24.
  18. Sko­ro­du­mov, D. “Politich­eskaya ontologiya istiny” [Polit­i­cal ontol­ogy of truth.], XIX Nizhe­gorod­skaya ses­siya molodykh uchenykh: guman­i­tarnye nau­ki [The Pro­ceed­ings of the 19th Nizh­ny Nov­gorod ses­sion of young researchers. Human sci­ences] 2014, pp. 240–242. (In Russ­ian)
  19. Tay­lor, M.C. After God. Chica­go: The Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go Press, 2007. 416 p.
  20. Tay­lor, M.C. Dis­fig­ur­ing: Art, Archi­tec­ture, Reli­gion. Chica­go: The Univ­er-sity of Chica­go Press, 1992. 346 p.
  21. Tay­lor, M.C. Erring: post­mod­ern a/theology. Chica­go: The Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go Press, 1984. 219 p.
  22. Vat­ti­mo, G. “A Prayer for Silence”, in: J. Caputo, G. Vat­ti­mo. After the Death of God / J. Rob­bins (ed.). New York: Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2007, pp. 89–113.
  23. Vat­ti­mo, G. “Toward a Non­re­li­gious Chris­tian­i­ty”, in: J. Caputo, G. Vat­ti­mo. After the Death of God / J. Rob­bins (ed.). New York: Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 2007, pp. 27–46.

Comments are closed.