Book description
Dickinson traces the development of two concepts, the messianic and the
canonical, as they circulate, interweave and contest each other in the
work of three prominent continental philosophers: Walter Benjamin,
Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben, though a strong supporting cast of
Jan Assmann, Gershom Scholem, Jacob Taubes and Paul Ricoeur, among
others, also play their respective roles throughout this study. He
isolates how their various interactions with their chosen terms reflects
a good deal of what is said within the various discourses that
constitute what we have conveniently labelled, often in mistakenly
monolithic terms, as 'Theology'.
By narrowing the scope of this study to the dynamics generated
historically by these contrasting terms, he also seeks to determine what
exactly lies at the heart of theology's seemingly most treasured object:
the presentation beyond any representation, the supposed true nucleus of
all revelation and what lies behind any search for a 'theology of
immanence' today. In this impressive new book, Dickinson sets forth a
compelling agenda for a radical theological hermeneutics. With excellent
and detailed readings of Agamben, Derrida, Benjamin, Ricoeur and Butler,
Between Canon and Messiah
reconfigures our map of contemporary philosophy and theology. Colby
Dickinson is Assistant Professor of Theology at Loyola University
Chicago, USA.
