Acts of Religion Book

Read "Force of Law" and "Hostipitality." In the entirety of Derrida's work, these two essays are perhaps his most clear (and, IMO, clarity and simplicity are virtues in philosophy), and most political (with the exception of Spectres of Marx, and the essays on animality). These essays are clearly written in the spirit of being attacked for having no ethics. With all the appropriations by theologians of making Derrida one of their own, and despite his constant attacks on negative theology, he is "most" negative theologian here, and by negative theology, I mean atheism: avowed or disavowed dark, mystical, or withdrawn god, without or outside reason, condition, rationality, knowledge, foundation, or subject. In other words, the petty trench wars in Derrida scholarship about whether or not Derrida was a theologian or an atheist miss the point.