Re-treating Religion. Deconstructing Christianity with Jean-Luc Nancy

Edited by Alena Alexandrova, Ignaas Devisch, Laurens ten Kate, and Aukje van Rooden Preamble by Jean-Luc Nancy “Features some of Nancy's clearest, most succinct formulations of his approach to the question of Christianity. A comprehensive and splendidly timely account of a ebate of immense importance.” —Martin Crowley, Queens' College “. . . An important and timely contribution to opening a scholarly engagement with Jean-Luc Nancy's groundbreaking work on the deconstruction of Christianity . . ." —David Pettigrew, Southern Connecticut State University SUMMARY One of the most complicated and ambiguous tendencies in contemporary Western societies is the phenomenon referred to as the “turn to religion.” In philosophy, one of the most original thinkers critically questioning this “turn” is Jean-Luc Nancy. Re-treating Religion is the first volume to analyze his long-term project “The Deconstruction of Christianity,” especially his major statement of it in Dis- Enclosure. Nancy conceives monotheistic religion and secularization, not as opposite worldviews that succeed each other in time, but rather as springing from the same history. This history consists in a paradoxical tendency to contest one’s own foundations—whether God, truth, origin, humanity, rationality, as well as to found itself on the void of this contestation. Nancy calls this unique combination of self-contestation and self-foundation the “self-deconstruction” of the Western world. The book includes discussion with Nancy himself, who contributes a substantial “Preamble” and a concluding dialogue with the volume editors. The contributions follow Nancy in tracing the complexities of Western culture back to the persistent legacy of monotheism, in order to illuminate the tensions and uncertainties we face in the twenty-first century. Contributors: Alena Alexandrova, Daniela Calabrò, Ignaas Devisch, Federico Ferrari, Ian James, Marc De Kesel, Michel Lisse, Donald Loose, Boyan Manchev, Jean-Luc Nancy, Anne O’Byrne, François Raffoul, van Peperstraten, Laurens ten Aukje van Rooden, Kathleen Vandeputte, Hent de Vries, Theo de Wit.