416 - Epiphanies of Darkness: Deconstruction in Theology

Epiphanies of Darkness: Deconstruction in Theology
By Charles E. Winquist
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1986. 144 pp. $12.95.

This book ranges over issues from the imagination to the public character of theology. Throughout, he articulates problems facing postmodern theology. These center on the realization

417 - Epiphanies of Darkness: Deconstruction in Theology

that radical otherness is inaccessible to objective thought. The sacred cannot become an object for knowledge. Moreover, postmodern claims about the indeterminacy of meaning and the deferral of presence in language require new strategies for theological argument. Winquist's task is to write about the unthinkable at the margins of our ways of knowing by uncovering and undoing tropes and turns in language.

Winquist sees theology as a form of deconstructionist writing. Theology seeks, but ever fails, to write about what discloses and effaces itself in language.

Winquist draws on Freudian thought and hermeneutics in order to explore these "epiphanies" of what is other, what is dark. His own writing masterfully enacts the vision of theology it proposes. This is a complex and insightful book for those interested in radical theology.

William Schweiker, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Ia.