In Kierkegaard's Garden with the Poppy Blooms: Why Derrida Doesn't Read Kierkegaard When He Reads Kierkegaard

Chris Boesel

In Kierkegaard's Garden with the Poppy Blooms: Why Derrida Doesn't Read Kierkegaard When He Reads Kierkegaard
Format
Hardback
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield
Country
United States
Published
27 July 2021
Pages
330
ISBN
9781978706514

In Kierkegaard’s Garden with the Poppy Blooms: Why Derrida Doesn’t Read Kierkegaard When He Reads Kierkegaard

Chris Boesel

Chris Boesel invites readers into a Kierkegaardian style literary conceit, creating two pseudonymous voices-one philosophical and deconstructive, one theological and confessional-in order to stage an encounter between two commentaries on Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. On one level, the contest between the two commentaries demonstrates the extent to which an encounter between deconstruction and Kierkegaard has not taken place in the one place everyone thinks it has, in Derrida’s reading of Fear and Trembling in The Gift of Death. On a deeper level, Boesel argues that Derrida’s misreading of Fear and Trembling is both source and symptom of a wider problem: an apophatic blind spot in deconstructive engagements with Christian theology in philosophy of religion and postmodern theology. This blind spot erases the theological and ethical possibilities of what Boesel calls a Kierkegaardian confessional faith, possibilities rooted in a deconstructive deconstructibility that produces its own deconstructive-like effects. As a corrective to this blind spot, the pseudonymous encounter between deconstruction and Kierkegaard staged here shows how these effects do the very things heralded by self-proclaimed apophatic remedies of confessional faith : disrupt human mastery over God and neighbor while calling for concrete commitments to justice for the widow, orphan and stranger.

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in approx 2 weeks

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.