마크 테일러의 해체신학에서의 해석학적 문제

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to study the deconstructive theology of Mark C. Taylor from a hermeneutical perspective. The constructive theology, a systematic attempt to apply the assumptions and methods of Derridean deconstruction to theology as a whole, understands the concept of “Erring” as a hermeneutical departure. Taylor’s deconstructive theology is based upon the death of God theology in 1960s. As Taylor points out, “deconstruction is the hermeneutic of the death of God.” Thus, the death of God will be considered a brief critical detour before returning to a discussion of the components of Mark C. Taylor’s deconstructive theology. In particular, this thesis will consider three parts. First, the deconstructive theology is critical to the God of traditional Western theology as the source of all things. This way of thinking of God, based upon Aristotelianism or Greek conceptualization, is incompatibility for Taylor because it suggested a bifurcation of polarities such as God/World, Eternity/Time, Being/Becoming, Presence/Absence, Sacred/Profane, Infinite/Finite, One/Many, Identity/Difference, and centrally, Transcendence/Immanence. Taylor also attempts to argue that the transcendent Creator God of the Christian tradition has disappeared from history. As a result, he attempt to reconceptualize God as “the divine milieu” of “writing.” Second, the deconstructive theology is critical to the self of traditional Western theology. For Taylor, the human self is viewed as imago dei which gains its unity and identity from the unity and selfidentity of the one God. Throughout his works, Taylor tries to view the notion of self as “trace.”The central self is thus “more a literary creation than a literal fact.” Denying any preexisting or divinely created essence to the human self, Taylor declares that “there is no such thing as an original individual who initially stands outside a field of interaction and subsequently enters a matrix of relations.” In this connection, Taylor develops the notion of the self as trace which is an extension of the textual trace in Derrida’s thinking. where even there the concept acquires ontological status. Third, the deconstructive theology attempts to move from history as teleological narrative to “erring” as “Mazing Grace.” Taylor sees the Western view of history as a concept of “logocentrism,” that is, God as Creator and eternal logos is the stable enter which provides human history with structure and purpose. However, attacking this view of history, Taylor tries to show that the “closure” of history opens the “time and space of graceful erring.” Thus Taylor seems to deny both teleology and eschatolgy, and thus presents a picture of humanity as without “pure origin or perfect end.” With the death of God and disappearance of the self, the errant trace wanders aimlessly and endlessly through the labyrinthine tracks of the “divine milieu” without promise of hope. Finally, Taylor’s deconstructive theology criticizes the Western view of the “Book” and attempts to move from the “the closed book” to “the open text.” As a mentioned, in a coda on the Western concept of the “book” Taylor recapitulates much of the attack on logocentrism that characterized his deconstruction of history. In this case, book is understood as “writing.” For Taylor, writing suggests author’s absence or death, because meaning from the book drifts endlessly and “erring can never be overcome.” In evaluating Taylor’s deconstructive theology, this thesis attempts to criticizes it in three areas such as methodological problems, epistemological problems, and the concept of truth. Nevertheless, although the deconstructive theology may fall into the problems of relativity and nihilism, it shows the possibility of diversity and difference in a theological inquiry.