Philosophy and Theology

Volume 28, Issue 1, 2016

Theological Gaps—Linguistic Gaps
Possibilities for a Hermeneutical and Deconstructive Theology

The defects and blank spaces of language are a challenge for any theology that sees itself as a linguistic reflection of faith. If theology pretends to speaking with any philosophical relevance, it must respect these gaps. Hermeneutics and deconstruction offer philosophical ways of analysing these linguistic gaps present in theology. In this way, they can integrate the linguistic turn of philosophy into theology. The hermeneutical theology of the twentieth century is at an impasse. Insofar as deconstruction carries critically different elements of the linguistic philosophy of hermeneutics forward, it provides theology with new opportunities to reflect on its own linguistic structure.