Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on translations of the Bible
- Introduction: postmodernism, ontotheology, and Christianity
- 1 NIETZSCHE'S MOCKERY: THE REJECTION OF TRANSCENDENCE
- II HEIDEGGER'S FORGETTING: THE SECULARIZATION OF BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
- III DERRIDA'S DENIALS: THE DECONSTRUCTION OF ONTOTHEOLOGY
- 11 From the ends of man to the beginnings of writing
- 12 Deconstituting the subject
- 13 Writing and metaphysics
- 14 Reading the law: the Spirit and the letter
- 15 Scripture or écriture: the limitations of Derrida's deconstruction of ontotheology
- Conclusion: ontotheology, negative theology, and the theology of the cross
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - Deconstituting the subject
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on translations of the Bible
- Introduction: postmodernism, ontotheology, and Christianity
- 1 NIETZSCHE'S MOCKERY: THE REJECTION OF TRANSCENDENCE
- II HEIDEGGER'S FORGETTING: THE SECULARIZATION OF BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
- III DERRIDA'S DENIALS: THE DECONSTRUCTION OF ONTOTHEOLOGY
- 11 From the ends of man to the beginnings of writing
- 12 Deconstituting the subject
- 13 Writing and metaphysics
- 14 Reading the law: the Spirit and the letter
- 15 Scripture or écriture: the limitations of Derrida's deconstruction of ontotheology
- Conclusion: ontotheology, negative theology, and the theology of the cross
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites … and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Exodus 3:13–14“You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
John 8:57–58The appearing of the I to itself in the I am is thus originally a relation with its own possible disappearance. Therefore, I am originally means I am mortal. I am immortal is an impossible proposition. We can even go further: as a linguistic statement “I am he who am” is the admission of a mortal.
Derrida, Speech and PhenomenaYour wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you; For you have said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”
Isaiah 47:10The force of Derrida's move from man to language and from Being to writing comes from his deconstruction of the subject, of the self-presence of the conscious subject. This deconstruction emerges out of Derrida's encounter with Heidegger's predecessor and teacher, Edmund Husserl. As John D. Caputo summarizes: “This rereading of Husserl is made possible … by shifting the focus from consciousness to semiotics, from the subject to signs.”
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- Postmodern Theory and Biblical TheologyVanquishing God's Shadow, pp. 178 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995