Indonesian Evangelical Hermeneutics Meets Derrida’s  “Il n’y a pas de hors-texte”

Frederich Oscar Lambertus Lontoh

doi:10.33856/kerugma.v9i1.276

Authors

Frederich Oscar Lambertus Lontoh Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Moriah, Tangerang, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33856/kerugma.v9i1.276

Keywords:

Il n'y a pas de hors-texte; Deconstruction; Derrida; Evangelical; Indonesian; Hermeneutic

Abstract

This study examines the intersection between Jacques Derrida's deconstructive axiom, "Il n'y a pas de hors-texte" (often translated as "nothing is outside the text"), and the well-established principles of Indonesian Evangelical hermeneutics. Derrida's statement challenges the notion of fixed meaning, stable reference, and authorial intent outside of the textual marking game, emphasizing contextuality and the impermanence of meaning. In contrast, Indonesian Evangelical hermeneutics, which is rooted in the Protestant theological tradition and often emphasizes the authority, clarity, and divine inspiration of Scripture (Sola Scriptura), seeking objective truths and stable meanings for faith and practice, also emphasizes the author's contextual understanding when writing the text. Using the literature analysis research method, this study explores the underlying tensions and potential points of dialogue between these frameworks. This paper argues that this encounter highlights fundamental questions about the authority of the text, the nature of interpretation, the possibility of stable meaning, and the influence of cultural location in the unique Indonesian Evangelical context, revealing both significant challenges and unexpected hermeneutical complexities. This study concludes that although Indonesian evangelical hermeneutics and Jacques Derrida's deconstruction experience a fundamental epistemological conflict. Indonesian evangelicals adhere to the final authority of the Bible as the coherent and meaningful word of God. In contrast, Derrida's deconstruction radically rejects the existence of a stable meaning in any text and emphasizes the text's irreducibility to external contexts such as history, authors' intentions, or transcendent references. Deconstruction was seen as threatening the foundations of biblical authority and the stability of the doctrine it held so firmly. A common point emerges in the emphasis on the role of the interpretative community.

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