Gaven og det Andet

Resumé

The purpose of this article is to stress the relevance of Jacques Derrida to theology and the study of religions. In The Gift of Death he deals with philosophical as well as scientific conceptualizations of ethics in discussion with various authorities in the field - such as Levinas, Kierkegaard, Patocka, Heidegger and Mauss. Derrida’s primary concern is to reject the classical empiral treatment of ethics (as represented by Mauss’ The Gift), according to which the gift becomes the crown example of circularity of love and good deeds. Derrida regards this as a reduction of the ethical complexity to a matter of calculation which is caused by Christianity in its claim for visual certification and knowledge. Instead he pleads for a philosophical concept of ethics as the ultimate gift that breaches with circularity and calculation in the attempt to meet and embrace the Other without prejudice or expectation of gain. Ethics viewed as unlimited responsibility makes it incommensurable with scientific enterprise in general. Derrida’s mission is not to free ethics from religion, but rather to reintroduce a different religious insight into the field of ethics - namely from the viewpoint of faith: openness and fundamental non-knowledge; in other words, Derrida wants to remind us of what it is all about, i.e., that we will never know what it is all about.