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ERIC Number: EJ937328
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0034-4087
EISSN: N/A
What Kind of Deconstruction for Deconstructive Religious Education? Response to Noaparast and Khosravi
Biesta, Gert J. J.; Miedema, Siebren
Religious Education, v106 n1 p105-108 2011
The question whether the writings of Jacques Derrida have anything to offer for religious education is, in the authors' opinion, a very important one. In their attempts at answering the question, the authors have tried to argue that the writings of Derrida provide openings that speak to both theology and education in a way that is not only significant for each domain separately, but that actually "crosses" the two domains. This makes the work of Derrida of particular interest for the field of religious education. What the authors have never said is that religious education "should" proceed in a deconstructive register. The starting point for any engagement with the work of Derrida lies in the domain of philosophy. One of the main challenges here is to get the interpretation of Derrida's writings "right." While the authors applaud the attempt by Noaparast and Khosravi (2011) to continue the conversation about the significance of Derrida's work for religious education, the authors believe that there is something wrong with their starting point. While this does not invalidate the points they make about religious education, the authors do not think that their conclusions can count as ways of reasoning that exemplify what deconstructive religious education is about. The authors argue that, unlike what Noaparast and Khosravi seem to suggest, deconstruction is about the affirmation of what cannot be thought or named or conceived of within a particular "positivity" but at the same time makes this "positivity" possible. What is at stake in deconstruction is an openness toward an "unforeseeable" in-coming of the other.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A