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Deconstructing Theology. By Mark C. Taylor. AAR Studies in Religion, 18. New York: Crossroad; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983. xxi + 129 pages. $12.95.

Taylor's work is not a general introduction to theology's possible use of Deconstruction (he has done some of that in his "Deconstruction: What's the Difference?," Soundings 66 [1983], 387-403). But it broadly qualifies as deconstructionist on two counts: it dwells upon Hegel and Kierkegaard, two figures intensively discussed by deconstructionists, and it tries to face the kinds of issues raised for theology by deconstructionists: the death of God, the self's disappearance, the author's erasure, the interplay between absence and presence, etc. I experienced the book's six essays (five previously published) as a kind of highly personalized interpretation of somewhat related themes, especially influenced by Thomas Altizer, and less immediately influenced by Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Derrida. "Journeys to Moriah: Hegel vs. Kierkegaard" focuses on the interpretation of Abraham, arguing "that what Hegel regards [in the model of Abraham] as self-realization Kierkegaard sees as self-alienation, and what Hegel interprets as self-estrangement is for Kierkegaard self-fulfillment" (p. 18). Unlike Kierkegaard, whom Taylor thinks misunderstood Hegel on this point, Hegel's model of the self is relational, embracing both identity and relation to the other. "Itinerarium Mentis in Deum: Hegel's Proofs of God's Existence" is a fascinating analysis of how Hegel attempts to validate simultaneously the cosmological, teleological, and ontological proofs, by viewing each as dialectical moments of a single, complex proof. Each proof correlates with a different stage in the philosophy of religion: cosmological = the religion of nature; teleological = the religion of spiritual individuality; ontological = absolute religion. Grasping their interconnection requires advancing beyond analytic understanding (Verstand) to dialectical reason (Vernunft). The cosmological and teleological explore the world's movement to God; the ontological, God's to the world. Each presupposes the other: man's ascent is God's descent, and vice versa. The remaining essays move toward larger horizons. "Toward an Ontology of I Relativism" argues that "meaning is contextual and being is relational" (48). Truth's varying forms must be seen as mutually co-constitutive. "Interpreting Interpretation" is an Hegelian-Altizerian interpretation of hermeneutics: the familiar (the present) and the strange (the past text) are the mutually related identity and difference. "The Empty Mirror" attempts to transcend Derrida by developing a metaphysics of both absence and presence through Hegel's dialectical mode of reasoning. "Gnicart/Tracing" is a series of Taylor's HegelianDeconstructionist aphorisms. This book should be read as a helpful confrontation between the brand of Hegelianism represented by Altizer-Taylor and some forms of deconstructionist thought. It is a kind of exercise book meant for advanced courses only. The work gives the appearance of being rather novel in its conclusions, but actually one will find similar and more complete discussions of the same themes in most of the leading theologians today.