Derrida remarks in the last interview before his death, Leaning To Live Finally, that survival constitutes the very structure of what we call existence, that: “We are structurally survivors, marked by the structure of the trace and of the testament” (LLF 51). It is this understanding that makes Derrida's writing what interviewer Jean Birnbaum calls a “writing of the inherited promise, of the safeguarded trace, and of entrusted responsibility”—a “writing of survival [survivance]” (LLF 30). This writing is affirmative, “an unconditional affirmation of life,” and of “life more than life” (LLF 52), never more so than when, as is the case in this interview, it is haunted by an awaiting death. The following book, also haunted by Derrida's death, affirms, is an affirmative response to his work. The book introduces Derrida as a “key thinker” for the study of religion.

I thank my family. I am grateful to editor Steven Engler and the editing and production staff at Equinox Press. Thanks to Amy Becker for Index and proof-reading assistance. And I acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the University of Manitoba, and St. John's College.