Analysis of the Possibility of Application of Deconstructive Strategy in Theological Studies

Abstract

The article attempts to analyze the possibility of applying deconstructive strategy in theological research. For this purpose, the author firstly defines the specificity of the deconstructive strategy of thinking, which consists in the researcher’s aspiration to catch the trace left by the author in the original unwritten proto-text by means of revealing oppositions and their loosening, up to their complete splitting, contributing to the disclosure of new meanings in the text. Then, on the basis of the analysis of modern Russian studies concerning the critical comprehension of Jacques Derrida’s theory of deconstruction, a systematization of very contradictory remarks and objections is carried out, as a result of which three critically minded groups are revealed: researchers of Postmodernism and Poststructuralism, accusing deconstruction of debunking stable notions; the scholars of neo-Marxist direction, emphasizing its excessive Theology; theologians of various branches of Christian thought, revealing an atheological and even atheistic character in the deconstructive thinking strategy. The author of the paper further analyses the work of an Arabian scholar ‘Ali Zawwari Ahmad on the criticism of Arab modernists who use western deconstructive methodology in dealing with religious texts, thus revealing that in the contemporary Muslim world there are two opposing views on the use of deconstructive strategies in theological studies, which are according to the traditional Muslim community, faithfully defend the inviolability of religious traditions, including in the field of Theological Methodology.