Deleuze, Guattari and the Machine in Early Christianity

Expanding the impact of Gilles Deleuze and Felix 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.>

McLean provides us with a much-needed Deleuzian voice for reading Early Christian literature. Whereas scholarship often interprets Early Christian literature with unspoken philosophical assumptions, McLean explicitly combines Deleuzian concepts (multiplicity, machines, the body without organs, deterritorialization, becoming-woman) with this literature, offering new, relevant, and challenging assemblages.

Préface
Original application of Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the machine to the origins of early Christianity.

Auteur
Bradley McLean is Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Knox College, University of Toronto, Canada.

Résumé
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.

Contenu
List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. The Rise of the Christ Machines 2. Desiring Production and Early Christianities 3. The Rhizome: Multiplicities and the Virtual Dimension of Christ Groups 4. The Autoproduction of a Body of Christ without Organs 5. Territorializations and Deterritorializations: On Becoming Outlandish 6. Deterritorialization in the Gospels: A Typology of Lines 7. The Stratification of Christ Groups in the Despotic Socius 8. Christ Groups as Social Assemblages and Abstract Machines 9. The God of Religion and the Schizo God 10. The Myth of Eve: Falling Into, and Out of, Delusion 11. On Several Regimes of Signs and Several Christs 12. The Despotic Christ and the Signifying Despotic Regime of Signs 13. The Passional Christ and the Passional Subjective Regime of Signs 14. What Can Christ's Body Do? 15. Molecular Becomings of Christ: Becoming-woman 16. Christ Becoming-animal: An Affair of Sorcery 17. Christ's Becomings-imperceptible: Martyrological, Magical, and Cosmic 18. The Nomad Jesus and the Galilean War Machine Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index