Deleuze and Theology

An exploration of the thought of Gilles Deleuze and its relevance to 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.