Deleuze And The Schizoanalysis Of Religion

This volume brings together some of the leading voices in the field of Deleuze studies to explore – and practice – a variety of approaches to the schizoanalysis of religion. The authors share an enthusiasm for applying Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalytic project to “religion,” but they display significantly different ways of carrying out its creative and destructive tasks. As a whole, the book addresses the relevance of Deleuze for contemporary developments in political theology, liberation theology, Christian doctrine, and the recent growth of interest in spirituality and atheism. Opening up new lines of flight for Deleuze studies, Deleuze and the Schizoanalysis of Religion makes rhizomic connections that will be of interest to scholars in other fields including theology, psychology of religion, philosophy of religion and the history and practice of Western esotericism.

This volume brings together some of the leading voices in the field of Deleuze studies to explore – and practice – a variety of approaches to the schizoanalysis of religion. The authors share an enthusiasm for applying Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalytic project to “religion,” but they display significantly different ways of carrying out its creative and destructive tasks. As a whole, the book addresses the relevance of Deleuze for contemporary developments in political theology, liberation theology, Christian doctrine, and the recent growth of interest in spirituality and atheism. Opening up new lines of flight for Deleuze studies, Deleuze and the Schizoanalysis of Religion makes rhizomic connections that will be of interest to scholars in other fields including theology, psychology of religion, philosophy of religion and the history and practice of Western esotericism.

Expanding the impact of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's philosophy to the disciplines of Christian Origins and Christian theology, this original study makes the case for understanding early Christianity through such Deleuzioguattarian concepts as the 'rhizome', the 'machine', the 'body without organs' and the 'multiplicity', using the theoretical tool of schizoanalysis to do so. The reconstruction of the historical emergence of early Christianity, Bradley H. McLean argues, has been constrained by traditional assumptions about its historical and transcendental origins. These assumptions are ill-suited to theorizing the genesis, change and transformation of early Christianity in the first three centuries of the Common Era. To capture the dynamism of early Christianity, McLean applies Guattari's concept of the 'machine', to the analysis of early Christianity. Arguing that machines are both an unnoticed dimension of early Christianity, and a major analytical tool for the discipline, McLean highlights the potential of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari to challenge and reconfigure not just our knowledge of early Christianity, but all aspects of Hellenistic Judaism, and the Greco-Roman world, as well as our understanding of Jesus of Nazareth and the Jesus movement. By subverting the concept of a single transcendental or historical origin of Christianity, this book facilitates new forms of dialogue and cooperation between Christians and co-religionists.

Despite the ever-expanding body of Deleuzian scholarship, single volume has explored the religious dimensions of Delueze's writing. Now, Mary Bryden has assembled a team of international scholars to do just that. Their essays illustrate the ways in which Deleuzian thought is antithetical to religious debate, as well as the ways in which it contributes to those debates. This volume will be invaluable for researchers, teachers and students of theology, philosophy, critical theory, cultural studies and literary criticism as well as to students of French who read Deleuze's work in its original language.

This book offers an insightful history of dystopian literature, integrating it within the conceptual schemas of Deleuze and Guattari. Unlike earlier examples of dystopia which depict representations of a possible future that is remarkably worse than present society, contemporary dystopia often tends to portray an almost allegorical re-presentation of present society. Tracing dystopia’s shift from transcendence towards immanence with the rise of late neoliberal capitalism and control-societies, Çokay Nebioğlu skilfully constructs a new taxonomy of dystopian fiction to address this changing dynamic. Accompanied by a subtle exploration of earlier and later examples of the genre by George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, William Gibson, Max Barry, Dave Eggers, Cindy Pon, and Tahsin Yücel along with rich and nuanced analysis of China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station and Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy, the book seeks not only to track the transformation of dystopia in light of worldwide cultural, political and economic transformation, but also to conduct a schizoanalytic reading of dystopia, thus opening up an exciting field of enquiry for Deleuzian scholars.

F. LeRon Shults explores Deleuze's fascination with theological themes and shows how his entire corpus can be understood as a creative atheist machine that liberates thinking, acting and feeling.

In Practicing Safe Sects F. LeRon Shults provides scientific and philosophical resources for having “the talk” about religious reproduction: where do gods come from – and what are the costs of bearing them in our culturally pluralistic, ecologically fragile environment?

In What is Philosophy?, Deleuze argued that atheism is not a drama but 'the philosopher's serenity and philosophy's achievement.' LeRon Shults illustrates the uses and effects of an 'atheist machine' throughout Deleuze's work, demonstrating its central role in his philosophical achievements in metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. Shults also brings Deleuze's philosophy into dialogue with recent advances in computational social simulation, specifically multi-agent artificial intelligence modelling. Framing his argument in the context of empirical findings and theoretical developments in the scientific study of religion, he points toward the potentially creative role of atheist assemblages in addressing societal challenges associated with the Anthropocene. F. LeRon Shults is Professor at the Institute for Global Development and Planning at the University of Agder and Research Professor at the NORCE Center for Modeling Social Systems in Kristiansand, Norway.