Tod des Subjekts? Der Neostrukturalismus als Herausforderung für christliche Theologie und Philosophie

The research project has three main results: a) It is justified to speak of the "death of man", "the death of the subject" or "anti-humanism" in relation to poststructuralist thinking as it is encountered in Derrida, Foucault, Lacan and Lyotard. Not only does poststructuralism criticise the modern concept of subjectivity according to which man is the centre and of his world, it also deconstructs what is essential to humanism in general and Christian thought in particular: the idea, that man is a free, self-conscious, self-identical and individual being. For in poststructuralism, man turns out to be nothing else than a product of unconscious, decentred and differential organised, instable and uncontrollable structures. These structures lie beneath language respectively sign-systems in general (Derrida, Lacan, Lyotard) or in social structures and structures of power. As a final consequence, this entails the following: (1) self- consciousness is an illusion, (2) man isn`t free but fundamentally determined by structures of systems, (3) man doesn`t stay the same throughout his life, i.e. he is not self-identical, (4) man is not an individual but an accidental result of a combination of structures. b) Although there has been a certain encounter, Christian philosophy and theology did not yet discuss poststructuralism and its theory of the "death of man" sufficiently. On the contrary, in many respects the discussion is superficial, eclectic, frequently limited to pure presentation and interpretation and it often takes place from very specific viewpoints. Detailed and profound studies are the exception. The "death of man" isn`t nearly dealt with at all, and when it is discussed, it only plays a very marginal role. Obviously, the problem of subjectivity and it consequences have not yet been realised by Christian philosophy and theology. c) The poststructuralist criticism of the subject proved to be too radical and to overshoot the mark. In addition, it uses bad arguments. Christian philosophy and theology therefore not only have to but can maintain the idea of subjectivity.