Barth, Derrida and the Language of Theology
Barth, Derrida and the Language of Theology
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USDThis study offers a new and original analysis of the problem of religious language. Taking as its starting point Karl Barth's doctrine of analogy, it places this doctrine within the context of German Sprache and Rede philosophies and reveals the historical links between them and the work of the philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. Drawing out the parallels between this work and Barth's insights into the language of theology, it concludes that Barth's doctrine of analogy is a theological reading of Derrida's economy of différence. This important contemporary interpretation of Karl Barth reveals his closeness to postmodern thinking and underlines his relevance to current debates on the language of theology. It will be of interest to those studying both general questions of theology and language and the particular relationship between theology and postmodernism.
- A postmodern analysis of the language of theology
- A contemporary reading of Karl Barth
- An original comparison between Barth's doctrine of analogy and Derrida's economy of différance
Reviews & endorsements
"...the first disciplined and lucid account of Derrida's significance in the interpretation of Scripture and theology. This examination of 'postmodern' problems is written with sophistication and an ear for what theologians find accessible. Its reading of the question of analogy in the traditional theology of Karl Barth, and of its historical and conceptual relation to Derrida's 'economy of différance' is convincing and thought-provoking." Benjamin Hutchens, Times Literary Supplement
"Ward's tesis, summarized bery simply here, is highly nuanced. He shows an impressive command of 20th-century theology and philosophy. Those looking for informative interpretations of workds by Buber, Heidegger, Levinas and of course, Barth and Derrida will not be disappointed. Ward offers a compelling case for the continued conversation between postmodern thought and Christian theology." Christian Century
"This is an excellent piece of work and deserves much careful reading..." Mark A. McIntosh, Anglican Theological Review
"It is a brilliant and complex analysis of Barth's way of responding to the post-Kantian crisis of representation in the form of a theology of the Word of God." Religious Studies Review
Product details
January 1999Paperback
9780521657082
280 pages
214 × 137 × 15 mm
0.365kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I. Logocentrism:
- 1. Karl Barth's two models for the nature of language
- 2. Sprachphilosophie from Hamann to Humboldt
- 3. Forms of logocentrism among Barth's contemporaries
- 4. Barth between Sprache and Rede philosophy
- Part II. Dialogues with Difference:
- 5. Heidegger's dialogue with difference
- 6. Buber's dialogue with difference
- 7. Barth's theology of the Word and Levinas's philosophy of saying
- Part III. Différance:
- 8. Derrida as Levinas's supplement
- 9. Barth and Levinas: their difference as différance
- 10. Derrida's supplement
- 11. Barth and the economy of différance
- 12. Conclusion: Comment ne pas parler
- Index.
