An exile to France from Algeria, where he was born in 1930, Jacques Derrida studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, then went on to teach philosophy there before becoming Director of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales. Over the years, he held teaching posts in both France and the United States, lectured in universities around the world, authored and co-authored some seventy books, and published innumerable essays and interviews. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth-century, and not the least for the ways in which his work shaped and continues to challenge the academic study of religion. This book introduces the undergraduate student to Derrida's life and work. The volume offers an overview of Derrida's writing from the 1960s to his death in 2004, considering prominent terms, and some of the central issues, and philosophical and religious figures, his writing engages. Included in the volume is a discussion of Derrida's significance for contemporary academic work and for the study of religion in particular. A reading list and review of the secondary literature on Derrida is also provided.

An exile to France from Algeria, where he was born in 1930, Jacques Derrida studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, then went on to teach philosophy there before becoming Director of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales. Over the years, he held teaching posts in both France and the United States, lectured in universities around the world, authored and co-authored some seventy books, and published innumerable essays and interviews. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth-century, and not the least for the ways in which his work shaped and continues to challenge the academic study of religion. This book introduces the undergraduate student to Derrida's life and work. The volume offers an overview of Derrida's writing from the 1960s to his death in 2004, considering prominent terms, and some of the central issues, and philosophical and religious figures, his writing engages. Included in the volume is a discussion of Derrida's significance for contemporary academic work and for the study of religion in particular. A reading list and review of the secondary literature on Derrida is also provided.