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[[Image:800px-Crop Book of Isaiah 2006-06-06.jpg|thumb|300px|The Holy Bible]]

[[Image:800px-Crop Book of Isaiah 2006-06-06.jpg|thumb|300px|The Holy Bible]]

'''Deconstruction''' is the [[postmodern]] or [[liberal]] belief that each person interprets a text in light of their own experiences, [[bias]]es, and [[prejudice]]s.<ref>Noebel, David, ''Understanding the Times'' (Summit Ministries, Manitou Springs, Colorado 2006) ISBN 978-0936163000.</ref> Thus, no text can have the same meaning for all [[people]]; a text's [[message]] depends entirely upon personal interpretation. Deconstruction holds an individual's interpretation of a text to be more important than the text itself.

'''Deconstruction''' is the [[postmodern]] technique for language and literary analysis, created by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, that denies the existence of a single meaning behind a set of symbols, such as a sentence.  Pointing out that the manner in which symbols (or "signifiers") are understood is something that changes not only from culture to culture, but also person to person, deconstruction indicates that there is no essentially transcendental idea (or "signified") behind a symbol.<ref>Bressler, Charles.  ''Literary Criticism'' 3rd ed. (Prentice Hall, Chicago, Illinois 2002) ISBN 978-0130333971.</ref>  This is sometimes interpreted as there being ''no'' meaning at all, but this is a common misunderstanding.  Further, some confuse deconstruction with another school of thought known as "reader response" criticism, in which emphasis is placed upon individual interpretation according to personal experiences.<ref>Noebel, David, ''Understanding the Times'' (Summit Ministries, Manitou Springs, Colorado 2006) ISBN 978-0936163000.</ref> In deconstruction, an approach which derives mostly from linguistic analysis, Derrida pointed out that the "actual" signified of any given signifier was often "undecidable," or incapable of being given a single interpretation independent from the individual understanding it. Derrida coined a number of the above terms, among others, to describe these phenomena.

''The term "deconstruction" was coined by [[French]] philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1960s.''<ref>''[http://www.bartleby.com/65/de/deconstr.html Deconstruction]'' in The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.</ref><!-- http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=deconstruction indicates that the word dates from 1973, although that's probably the /English/ word, and perhaps he coined the French version earlier? -->

Derrida wrote that history and language have always been traditionally full of privileged dualities of terms, such as order/chaos, high/low, and even good/bad. Among these has been the pairing of speaking/writing, which emphasized a historically logocentristic (or speech-focused) approach to literature. In support of this, he indicates the vocal patterning which evidences itself amongst the written word, found within such literary devices as dialogue, which functions as an awkward attempt to mimic vocal exchanges via the written word, and accordingly is intrinsically less natural.

Supporters of deconstruction apply it not only to [[literature]], but to all of [[reality]]. [[Postmodernist]]s claim that reality is constructed by each individual based on their unique ideas, biases, prejudices, etc. Thus, there can be no universal [[truth]] because reality is different for each individual.

Derrida was not passing judgment on these concepts; he was notorious for not advocating any "solutions" or even any beliefs, often refusing to define deconstruction when asked.  In his view, any definition would fall victim to the notion of what he termed "différance" (a pun on the French for "difference"), wherein no symbol can be described without resorting to further symbols to communicate, often further referencing more misleading binaries and leading into what he described as an endless "deferment" of meaning.

==Deconstruction in Practice==

==Deconstruction in Practice==

In an [[essay]] entitled "The Death of the Author",<ref>Roland Barthes, ''The Death of the Author'', (Aspen 1968)</ref> Roland Barthes argued that the origin of a text is unimportant, and that only the interpretation of the [[reader]] matters. He declared that this personal interpretation frees the text from the [[tyranny]] of the intended meaning given it by the [[author]]. No matter what a writer writes, or what they mean to say through their writing, their words will never have a universal meaning, and will be understood in a thousand different ways by the readers.

In an [[essay]] entitled "The Death of the Author",<ref>Roland Barthes, ''The Death of the Author'', (Aspen 1968)</ref> Roland Barthes argued that the origin of a text is unimportant, and that only the interpretation of the [[reader]] matters. He declared that this personal interpretation frees the text from the [[tyranny]] of the intended meaning given it by the [[author]]. No matter what a writer writes, or what they mean to say through their writing, their words will never have a universal meaning, and will be understood in a thousand different ways by the readers.

==Deconstruction and Christianity==

==Deconstruction and Christianity==