Disconnected
The Devil Reads Derrida, and Other Essays On the University, the Church,
Politics, and the Arts
by James K. A. Smith
Eerdmans, 2009
(163 pages, $18.00, paperback)
reviewed by Micah Mattix
I was unsure, at first, whether I wanted to read, much less review, James K. A. Smith’s collection of essays, The Devil Reads Derrida. It is not that I have something against Derrida. Smith rightly argues elsewhere that figures such as Derrida and Foucault are neither devils nor saints, and are often misunderstood. But to be honest, I am beginning to tire of references to them in books of theology. In English studies, Derrida has been out of fashion for more than a decade now, and I am hoping that the “critical” fire will soon die out in theology, along with all the breezy references to “postmodernism.”
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Micah Mattix is a Lecturer in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the review editor of The City, a new journal of Christian thought from Houston Baptist University. He and his wife are members of the Church of the Apostles (AMiA) in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have four children.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
33.3—May/June 2020
Bach's Cantata BWV 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbesteZeit (God's time is the very best time) by Ken Myers
28.5—Sept/Oct 2015
Remembering Angka & the Idolatry of the Khmer Rouge 40 Years Later by Les Sillars
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
