The Holy Scripture as 'the other': An application of Jacques Derrida's notion of deconstruction in evangelical theology

Jacques Derrida is one of the most prominent philosophers of the twentieth century whose ideas have influenced virtually every aspect of life in Western societies. His notion of deconstruction, in particular, which has aimed to overturn the fundamental assumptions of Western philosophy, has become popularized and found its way into everyday language as well as into scholarly discussions, posing a challenge to the Christian world-view. Theologians have responded to the challenge in a variety of ways, and certain evangelical scholars have endeavored to employ Derrida's deconstruction in their theology.;The thesis of this work is that there is an application of deconstruction that could be fruitful in evangelical theology but has not been thoroughly utilized by major evangelical figures in their works. Although Derrida's notion of deconstruction needs to be modified and limited to make use of it in Christian theology, his main motivation behind deconstruction, a respect for the "other," is a tremendously helpful idea. Theological systems can become tyrannical by repressing and excluding those parts of Scripture that would disrupt the neat structure of the particular system. However, evangelical deconstruction is a critical operation that works against tyrannical structures within theological systems, thereby demonstrating a respect for the Holy Scripture. The central aim of evangelical deconstruction is to improve theological systems by means of transformation, which includes both undoing and affirmation. Ultimately, it may be asserted that the movements of evangelical deconstruction proceed in the name of respect for the alterity and the singularity of the Holy Scripture as the other.