Deleuze and Theology, by Christopher Ben Simpson (T & T Clark, forthcoming September 2012) [Pre-order US]
What can a theologian do with Deleuze?
While using philosophy as a resource for theology is nothing new, Gilles
Deleuze (1925-1995) presents a kind of limit-case for such a
theological appropriation of philosophy: a thoroughly “modern”
philosophy that would seem to be fundamentally hostile to Christian
theology–a philosophy of atheistic immanence with an essentially chaotic
vision of the world. Nonetheless, Deleuze’s philosophy can generate
many potential intersections with theology opening onto a field of
configurations: a fractious middle between radical Deleuzian theologies
that would think through theology and reinterpret it from the
perspective of some version of Deleuzian philosophy and other theologies
that would seek to learn from and respond to Deleuze from the
perspective of confessional theology–to take from the encounter with
Deleuze an opportunity to clarify and reform an orthodox Christian
self-understanding.
