I spent today tracking down books from the seminary library and from Firestone at Princeton University, for my paper for my Dionysian course. It’s the one course I’m struggling with enjoying the most, and although I’m taking it Pass/Fail, the paper is our only grade in the course and therefore, it needs to be good. My paper is going to deal with Dionysius and Derrida, and their use of apophatic (negative) theology and their use of language - and how Derrida is the vehicle to get Dionysian apophatic theology to speak to us today in the emerging church in the postmodern culture. My official paper proposal (and bibliography) is here. I’m actually really intimidated to start trying to read Jacques Derrida, especially after Tony told me he is really really hard to understand. But really, I’m not too worried; I mean, it’s not like any of these titles sound intimidating: Derrida and Negative Theology; In the Shadow of the Divine: Negative Theology and Negative Anthropology in Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius and Eriugena; Unknow Thyself: Apophaticism, Deconstruction and Theology after Ontotheology; The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism; Denying Divinity: Apophasis in the Patristic Christian and Soto Zen-Buddhist Traditions; and The Negative Language of the Dionysian School of Mystical Theology…No problem.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Derrida? Are you sure?
May Jesus have mercy on your soul. “really really hard to understand” only begins to cover it.
Why do we need Derrida to appropriate ps. dionysius anyway?
adam, i think you’re officially smarter than i am.
Adam: do you think posts like this make you cool….AND I REMIND YOU AGAIN–DERRIDA DID NOT LIKE TO BE CALLED POSTMODERN–AND SAID HE DID NOT EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT TERM.
T
You’re jumping in pretty quick there, tiger. The Beauty of the Infinite is a fine book, by the way, though a bit of a chore to slog through. The author is Eastern Orthodox. They were pomo before it was cool. Like 1000 years ago.
yeah, i’m with keith. i’d hold off on Beauty of the Infinite. it’s a bitch.
on a larger scale, this is my concern with the contemporary pomo movement, btw–the apophatic language, the language of the negative, of what it is not. i’m not sure at all derrida needs appropriating, frankly. what he says about differ-ance is profound, but frankly, that was Barth before it was Derrida, that we understand what is by what is not.
Is this a final paper for a course, or a doctoral dissertation?
hey - dont beat yourself up over it.
I have been reading books on postmodernity for a long time, and i have never connected with Derrida. i appreciate the guy, but he sings in a different key, or something.
i bought “Acts of religion”, (Derrida) figuring that something in that book would click with me . .. . . . but no.
anyway, have fun reading and deconstructing the deconstructioner.
Dear Adam,
My former student Dean Kladder pointed me to your blog. I’m glad to see that there are other people in the universe who can put Derrida and the emerging church in the same sentence. I hope your engagement with Derrida goes well. Let me give you one strange word of advice: read quickly, and keep reading. On a first read of Derrida, it is absolutely crucial to see the forest, not get bogged down in the trees. So try to move through his texts and wait to make an evaluation until you’ve gotten the lay of the land. Then, on second (and third and fourth) reads you can go back and investigate particular trees.
The best intro I would suggest is John D. Caputo, _Deconstruction in a Nutshell_, which includes a lucid conversation with Derrida and a helpful commentary by Caputo.
Blessings on your labors,
Jamie Smith
Ironic that pomomusings is just learning about Derrida.
Hey now…let’s not let that get out about pomomusings.
Hey wait! I’m dead.
At least now I can deconstruct in peace…
Don’t you mean decompose?
Not necessarily…
Sounds like it will be an interesting paper - for what it’s worth I favour Zen over Derrida as a vehicle to get Dionysian apophatic theology to speak to us today in the emerging church - but that’s due more (1) to my own personal journey through Zen before embracing Christianity and (2) street level spirituality seems more conversant with eastern spirituality than Derrida. Anyway I explore a bit of this on my blog http://circleofdionysius.blogspot.com if you’re interested.
Too bad you didn’t read any of those titles… ;)
Books (big books!) on apophatic mysticism? Amazing the amounts of words people will use to say that there’s nothing to say at all!
BTW, I’m with Matt above on Zen and Dionysius–from the little I’ve read of Derrida, it seems like greatly diluted Zen. Just remember–no matter how many words they cram down you, it’s not about words.
Jon