Derrida among the Teachers of the Law: Deconstruction and Biblical Studies

Abstract

The reception of Jacques Derrida's work among both literary critics and biblical scholars has frequently taken the form of “deconstructive” exegesis, that is, textual studies which imitate his style of reading. Such readings fail to recognise that Derrida's unique literary style forms part of his philosophical project. Derrida's aims as a philosopher are most clearly to be seen in his reading of the work of Edmund Husserl. Husserl argues that, for our knowledge to have any lasting validity, the objects of our knowledge must be “ideal” objects, independent (in principle) of any particular act of knowing. By calling into question Husserl's analysis, Derrida's work threatens all our attempts to identify textual meaning, and calls into question the interpreter's very raison d'être. Therefore, rather than imitating Derrida's exegetical style, biblical scholars would be better engaged grappling with this philosophical challenge.