ABSTRACT
The tradition of Continental reflection on religion has historically placed special emphasis on a foundational, transcendental interrogation of religion: What is religion and how is it possible? The philosopher must take stock of religion by exposing its conceptual preconditions and at the same time must 'reign in' reason's tendency to deduce more than it should from its conceptual resources in order that religion not be wholly reduced to philosophy. The repetition of religious themes, for Jacques Derrida, describes the distinctive philosophical move in the Continental tradition that takes stock of religion, uncovering its conditions, even as religion is recognised to surpass philosophical categories. Radicalising the Kantian insight, Derrida argues that in the midst of this Continental approach to religious reflection, involving the 'interconnection' or interpenetration of faith and knowledge without solution, thought encounters as originary a radical exteriority.
