Theology and Contemporary Critical Theory

GRAHAM WARD is Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics at the University of Manchester. He is author of Barthes, Derrida and the Language of Theology (1995) and Balthasar at the End of Modernity (199). He has edited The Postmodern God, Radical Orthodoxy and the Certeau Reader.

'...the uninitiated enquirer will find here lucid and compelling introductions... the book is invaluable. But the initiated specialist will also find much of value, for the implications for theology are wide and far reaching.' - Gavin Hyman,New Blackfriars'Graham Ward...in his short, extremely useful and perceptive Theology and Contemporary Critical Theory offers a generous and appreciative reading of fashionable theorists - above all, of Derrida - and the challenge and opportunity they offer to theology.' - Gerard Loughlin, Times Literary Supplement

• 1 Theology and representation: introduction; Jacques Derrida; Luce Irigaray; Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak; Judith Butler; theological implications. 2: Theology and history: introduction; Paul Ricoeur; Hayden White; Michel Foucault; new historicism; theological implications. 3 Theology and ethics: introduction Julia Kristeva; Emmanuel Levinas; Jean Luc Nancy; theological implications 4 Theology and ethics: introduction; Stanley Fish; Jean Francois Lyotard; Cixous; Michel de Certeau; theological implications. Conclusion - theology and the re-enchantment of the world.