Monday, November 01, 2004
(1:28 PM) | Anonymous:
What the Religious Right thought of Derrida's death: The increasingly inaccurately named Jacques Derrida Week.
I know we have an election that will decide the fate of the universe tomorrow, but I have found one more Derrida obituary. This one comes from none other than Charles "My WorldViewTM Can Beat-Up Your WorldViewTM" Colson. I must tell you that in comparison to Colson's the NYT's obituary is a work of staggering genius, and it makes me wonder further why anyone would ever have their students read Charles Colson as academic material.I don't regret going to Olivet Nazarene University but I do find myself often angry about my political philosophy education there. I received excellent education in philosophy of religion because of Craig Keen and my history of philosophy courses were also up to par, but the worldview aspect of Dr. Van Heemst's political theory courses were reductionist in their approach to everything non-Christian. Instead of approaching philosophical themes and issues rigorously, we did so with the same kind of faux emotion that we find in Evangelical healing services. The cripple is lead out in front of the crowd while we all take pity on him (and some pictures), reveling in our opportunity to have the "amazing experience" of "feeling God's touch." Surely when reading Nietzsche we should feel that something is at stake, but Nietzsche's philosophy is not a world-view that is competing with Christianity - it is a philosophical critique of the prevailing culture's morality and epistemology and should be dealt with as such. Not that Dr. Van Heemst is a poor teacher or lacking in intelligence, I don't want to suggest that is the case. Rather, it just really upsets me that this kind of emotionalism is what passes for knowing thyself for many American Christians.
