Religion as Response: Derrida's Responsibility to the Question of the Question

Abstract

Jacques Derrida’s fullest treatment of religion comes in his 1994/5 paper “Faith and Knowledge: The Two Sources of ‘Religion’ at the Limits of Reason Alone.” In it he states, “The question of religion is first of all the question of the question. Of the origins and borders of the question—as of the response.” In this thesis I explore Derrida’s metonymic use of the to and fro of question and response as a means for thinking through what is taking place in the event of religion. Starting with “Faith and Knowledge” I explore Derrida’s approach and the way it engages with four thinkers who influence his exploration of religion as response: Heidegger, Kant, Levinas and Kierkegaard. The thesis reveals that, rather than approaching religion as a site to be excavated and examined as if we might get to its bottom, Derrida’s interests lie in the event of religion that would exceed thematisation. As such, he attempts a way to speak of religion without ever saying what religion is, for when it comes to religion everything tends to drop out of sight as soon as knowledge is framed in terms of mastery. For Derrida, knowledge is not opposed to faith, but rather something that is infused with faith as it participates in the fiduciary opening that performativity affords. This faith-filled reasoning opens itself over a chasm that would offer no grounding site upon which to demonstrably build. Void of any structure of authority, this ‘mystical foundation’ complicates all oppositional logic, revealing that within every response is an element of belief. This is the structure of the performative event that every response responds to. Thus, the thesis offers a commentary on, what Derrida calls, ‘the promise’ (following Heidegger), which in turn becomes a framework with which to explore what is going on within religion.