Overview

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.

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9781350233881

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Reviews

McLean'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

Author Information

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

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