Sufi Deleuze: Secretions of Islamic Atheism

Deleuze and Guattari argue that Christianity secretes atheism more than any other religion, but their claim reflects the limits of their archive. Michael Muhammad Knight offers an intervention, engaging Deleuzian questions and themes from within Islamic tradition. He argues that to place Deleuze in conversation with Islam is a project of comparative theology and faces the challenge of any comparative theology. To start from such a place would defy Islam's historical multiplicity and betray Deleuze's model of the assemblage. A Deleuzian approach to Islamic theology would affirm that there is no universal Islamic theology that can speak for all Muslims in all historical settings, but rather a multiplicity of power struggles between major and minor forces that contest each other over authenticity, authority, and the making of orthodoxy. The discussions in Sufi Deleuze thus highlight Islam's extraordinary range of possibilities, making use of canonically privileged materials and exploring a variety of marginalized resources found throughout Islam that challenge the notion of a singular mainstream interpretive tradition.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 07 February 2023
Publisher: Fordham University Press

Deleuze and Guattari's claim that Christianity secretes atheism more than any other religion reflects the limits of their archive. Theological projects seeking to engage Deleuze remain embedded within Christian theologies and intellectual histories, whether they embrace, resist, or negotiate with Deleuze's atheism. In Sufi Deleuze, Michael Muhammad Knight offers an intervention, engaging Deleuzian questions and themes from within Islamic tradition. Even if Deleuze did not think of himself as a theologian, to place Deleuze in conversation with Islam is a project of comparative theology and faces the challenge of any comparative theology: It seemingly demands that complex, internally diverse traditions can speak as coherent, monolithic wholes. To start from such a place would not only defy Islam's historical multiplicity but also betray Deleuze's model of the assemblage, which requires attention to not only the organizing and stabilizing tendencies within a structure but also the points at which a structure resists organization, its internal heterogeneity, and unpredictable lines of flight. A Deleuzian approach to Islamic theology would first have to affirm that there is no such thing as a universal Islamic theology that can speak for all Muslims in all historical settings, but rather a multiplicity of power struggles between major and minor forces that contest each other over authenticity, authority, and the making of orthodoxy. The discussions in Sufi Deleuze thus highlight Islam's extraordinary range of possibilities, not only making it a fertile ground for Deleuze's thought but also challenging the assumptions of traditional Islamic theology.

Weight: 322g
Dimension: 227 x 154 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781531501815