Description
Book SynopsisExpanding 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, McLea
Trade ReviewMcLean’s book has something for everyone. Scholars of Early Christianity will find here an array of conceptual tools that will no doubt open up new insights into the origins of the “Christ machines.” Scholars of Deleuze and Guattari will find excellent examples of the coupling of their literary machine to the texts and practices of “Christ groups” in the first three centuries BCE. And everyone else will find an introduction to both fields that is accessible and fun to read. * F. LeRon Shults, Professor at the Institute for Global Development and Social Planning, University of Agder, Norway *
This book uses the work of Deleuze and Guattari – specifically the concept of the rhizome – rethink and retheorize approaches to the history of the emergence of Christianity. In doing so, it also takes us deep into the expanded universe of Deleuze and Guattari’s thought. * Ian Buchanan, Editor of Deleuze and Guattari Studies and Professor of Critical and Cultural Theory, University of Wollongong, Australia *
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. * Matthew G. Whitlock, Associate Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, Seattle University, USA *
Table of ContentsList 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
