Deleuze and Theology

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.