Derrida's Bible

In the last few years, Derrida has gained a great deal of attention from scholars of biblical studies and theology. The contributors to Derrida's Bible explore the relationships between Derrida, theory, and religious studies. Unlike other books on Derrida, this collection is primarily focused on biblical studies, where others are concerned with Derrida and religion in general.

'This valuable volume represents a helpful shift of focus of current discussions of 'Derrida and religion' to 'Derrida and the Bible,' to the way in which this scrupulously close micro-reader of texts reads and helps us read Biblical texts, the assembled conglomerate of which is what is meant by Derrida's Bible. The collection shows superbly how 'the Bible' (like 'Plato'), as a single overarching theological unity or an enabling ecclesiastical authorization, is exploded by a close-even 'literalist'-reading which releases an avalanche of metaphors, puns, competing theologies, heterogeneities, multiple layers of cut and paste authorship, good news and bad, awash in problems of interpretation and translation-in short, everything that Derrida predicts a 'text' (a 'scripture') would be. Yvonne Sherwood has produced an important collection for which everyone, readers of Derrida and readers of the Bible, will be grateful.' - John D. Caputo, Watson Professor of Religion, Syracuse University

'Readers who imagine they already know what Derrida's Bible amounts to - a transcendental signified cast down to earth, Lucifer-like, here; gleeful greasing of the higher rungs of a Jacob's ladder there - will be pleasantly surprised by this collection. The Derrida of the title is, for the most part, 'later' Derrida, increasingly irreducible to deconstruction, and certainly to deconstruction-by-numbers; and the readings of biblical texts showcased within are, at their best, correspondingly nuanced, surprising, and consequential.' - Stephen D. Moore, Professor of New Testament, The Theological School, Drew University, author of Mark and Luke in Poststructuralist Perspectives: Jesus Begins to Write and Poststructuralism and the New Testament: Derrida and Foucault at the Foot of the Cross

'This valuable volume represents a helpful shift of focus of current discussions of 'Derrida and religion' to 'Derrida and the Bible,' to the way in which this scrupulously close micro-reader of texts reads and helps us read Biblical texts, the assembled conglomerate of which is what is meant by Derrida's Bible. The collection shows superbly how 'the Bible' (like 'Plato'), as a single overarching theological unity or an enabling ecclesiastical authorization, is exploded by a close-even 'literalist'-reading which releases an avalanche of metaphors, puns, competing theologies, heterogeneities, multiple layers of cut and paste authorship, good news and bad, awash in problems of interpretation and translation-in short, everything that Derrida predicts a 'text' (a 'scripture') would be. Yvonne Sherwood has produced an important collection for which everyone, readers of Derrida and readers of the Bible, will be grateful.' - John D. Caputo, Watson Professor of Religion, Syracuse University

'Readers who imagine they already know what Derrida's Bible amounts to-a transcendental signified cast down to earth, Lucifer-like, here; gleeful greasing of the higher rungsof a Jacob's ladder there - will be pleasantly surprised by this collection. The Derrida of the title is, for the most part, 'later' Derrida, increasingly irreducible to deconstruction, and certainly to deconstruction-by-numbers; and the readings of biblical texts showcased within are, at their best, correspondingly nuanced, surprising, and consequential.' - Stephen D. Moore, author of Mark and Luke in Poststructuralist Perspectives: Jesus Begins to Write and Poststructuralism and the New Testament: Derrida and Foucault at the Foot of the Cross

Auteur
Elizabeth A. Castelli is Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University, USA.

Contenu
Come What May: Derrida's Hospitality to the Bible; Y.Sherwood Of Secretaries, Secrets, and Scrolls: Jeremiah 26 and the Irritating Word of God; M.Brummitt Between Genealogy and Virgin Birth; L.Danes Postcards From the (Canon's) Edge; R.P.Seesengood Erasing Amalek: Derrida and Biblical Tradition on How to Remember to Forget; B.Britt The Missing/Mystical Messiah: Melchizedek Among the Spectres of Genesis 14 Jerusalem and Memory; D.Jobling Shibboleth and the Making of Culture; F.M.Yamada The Making and Unmaking of Jewish Identity in Israel and the Book of Esther; D.Slivniak Triangulating Responsibility; R.C.Heard Death at the Gate: Who Let Him In?; M.Turner Derrida on Bartleby as Kierkegaard's Abraham; O.Eisenstadt Justice as Gift; T.Jennings, Jr. Mysterium Tremendum and What Lies Beneath; A.Wilson Over Sarah's (Dead) Body; Y.Sherwood Decomposing Qohelet; J.Koosed The End of the World; F.Landy Responses: John Barton, John D. Caputo, Mary-Jane Rubinstein