Abstract:

Although often viewed as an aberration in theology, the application of deconstructionist thought provides a way of approaching the theological task that enables issues of context to be debated in a new way. By applying notions of inter-textuality to the basis provided by the liminal / of Mark C. Taylor’s a/theology, it is possible to trace a path from land/scape to in/scape to a theo/scape. By in turn deconstructing Taylor’s a/theology, an eco a/theology is proposed that raises the possibility of framing god as presence in absence. As such, God is that which holds together and frames the views through which we perceive and create the world. Theology becomes eco a/theology not in a universalist, globalistic narrative, but rather that which takes seriously the contested claims of contextual theologies and hints at a knowledge and experience of ‘God’ that is located in an experience of the local context.

Author: Michael Grimshaw