ABSTRACT
There are few shades of grey in the writings of Radical Orthodoxy. Philosophers past and present are either given the imprimatur or are treated as heretics. Derrida falls into the latter category. John Milbank denounces Derrida as a 'nihilist' (along with a cohort of fellow 'Nietzschean' perpetrators). Catherine Pickstock characterizes Derrida's 'nihilism' as a form of 'necrophilia'. Milbank and Pickstock stand before Derrida rather as joint prosecuting counsel, concerned to make the charge of 'nihilism' stick. The point here is not to weigh evidence but to present it to maximum effect. Their objective is not primarily to make a contribution to 'Derrida studies' - although they certainly do - but to show how Derrida's philosophy is the wretched end-point of flawed secular thinking.
