Abstract
From a post-structuralist position, it is problematic and seemingly impossible to refer to God as the Trinity. This article describes possibilities for thinking about the Trinity (religion and God) within a post-structuralist context. As an example of such thinking, the 2015 culture-critique film, The Brand New Testament, will be analysed. It is a creative retelling of the Christian story and of the Trinity in a secular and post-metaphysical vein. This ‘Brand New Testament’ reveals God as ‘one’ – as the encompassing love, hope and life which we may experience in this life. The life-giving characteristics of this ‘god’ are surprisingly close to the biblical understanding of the Trinity. In the ‘Brand New Testament’, however, the Trinity is portrayed radically differently than in the Christian tradition. The personae of father, son and spirit are deconstructed in the film, in that a daughter and a mother also form part of the godhead. This deconstruction of the Trinity, which should not be confused with blasphemy, opens up a possible post-structuralist imagining of God. It playfully reveals a powerless god who shares some fundamental characteristics with the Trinity – such as love, joy and life. It allows for the ‘oneness of god’ to include more, and less, than the ‘Holy Trinity’.
Highlights
The Trinity is the ‘most proper’ naming of the absolute, the identity of the particular revelation of God within Christianity
The philosopher Richard Kearney identifies this risk in his reaction to the critique of post-structuralism2 that God is the ‘infinite desertification of language’ (Derrida 1995:55–56; Meylahn 2016:4), unknowable and unnameable
How are we to think about the critique and implications of post-structuralism and the particularity and naming of the Trinity?
Summary
The Trinity is the ‘most proper’ naming of the absolute, the identity of the particular revelation of God within Christianity. The philosopher Richard Kearney identifies this risk in his reaction to the critique of post-structuralism that God is the ‘infinite desertification of language’ (Derrida 1995:55–56; Meylahn 2016:4), unknowable and unnameable. How are we to think about the critique and implications of post-structuralism and the particularity and naming of the Trinity?. The focus here is on how the Trinity is deconstructed in The Brand New Testament and how it opens up different imaginings of God which might not be too far removed from the biblical description. This article follows Derrida’s poststructuralist deconstruction as a starting point and moves to the more ‘positive’ aspects of poststructuralism
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
