Structuralism, both as a method of analysis and as an ideology into which the method constantly degenerates, has spread from France to become a typical phenomenon of our times, and as such is of interest to the Christian preacher.

1. History of the method. The history of European thought may be said to have gone from substance to structure, from a notion of being characterized by intrinsic determination and independent existence to another perspective which can be defined only with difficulty. Possibly its first expression was given it i…