The writing of creatures

the environmentality of confessions in Derrida and Augustine

pp. 159-188

in: , Exercises in new creation from Paul to Kierkegaard, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

This chapter considers how the exercises of reading and writing in both Derrida and Augustine chart a path in which philosophical theology is personal and political, academic and activist. These forms of writing are radically different from a great deal of science writing or nature writing that seek to separate the knowledge of "nature" from the formations of culture and the apparatuses of knowing. Following Derrida's exploration of technologies of communication, especially in "Envois' and Circumfession, and the pivotal role of scenes of reading and creation in Augustine's Confessions, this chapter explores intellectual exercises that actively shape and are shaped by the relationship between creatures and creation—what Dickinson calls the writing of creatures.