Deconstructing Undecidability: Derrida, Justice, and Religious Discourse

In Deconstructing Undecidability, Michael Oliver explores the problematic nature of decision, including the inherent exclusivity that accompanies any decision, and the ways in which we attempt to avoid recognizing this exclusivity. Advancing current readings of the deconstructive work of Jacques Derrida, Oliver critically examines the perennial problem of inescapable decision by focusing on two particular scenarios. In discourses where a pursuit of justice or liberation from systemic oppression is a primary concern, Oliver argues for an appreciation of the inescapability of making limited, difficult decisions for particular forms of justice. He highlights a similarly precarious predicament in the context of theological understandings and negotiations of divine decision, pointing to the impossibility of safely navigating this issue. In so doing, Oliver offers a renewed sense of undecidability that urges continued vigilance with regard to complex, difficult decisions. While wholeheartedly affirming the problem of exclusivity that inevitably accompanies decision, Oliver argues for the necessity of reckoning with difficult decisions and highlights how one only ever mistakenly inhabits the illusory position of “indecision,” i.e. standing outside the decision point, as a reflection of power and privilege. Ultimately, this book aims to gain a greater appreciation for the complexity of the problem of decision—in the contexts of justice work and theological understandings of divine decision—in order to be more rigorous and transparent in our continued engagement with it.