ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters have demonstrated that for Thomas Aquinas and Jacques Derrida, friendship constitutes the pragmatic or political correlate of naming God. In light of how one names God, either in eminent discourse or in prayer and testimony, one conceives the possibility of singular relation, and thereby opens the field of possibility for friendship with human others. In charity as friendship with God, or in singular responsibility before the other, Thomas’ and Derrida’s understandings of the communal telos of human life grow from their views on language and signification, whether in terms of beatitude or the self-deconstructing pursuit of justice for singular others.
