Abstract

The question of Derrida and religion may be thought of in three stages. This chapter addresses these three stages by arguing that when early on Derrida undertakes a deconstruction of ontotheology one ought not to be too quick to say that he is not a man of religion, and when later on when he speaks of his religion one must understand this religion is also without religion. The chapter assesses Derrida's fortunes amidst the current renewal of anti‐religion. From the start, for all his seeming godlessness, there was the trace of theology in what Derrida was saying, a ghost that constantly haunted him and disturbed his readers. When he wrote that différance is neither a word nor a concept, neither sensible nor supersensible, neither this nor that, that sounded like Meister Eckhart and other negative theologians.