Daniel Tutt

I have a review essay that explores Deleuze and Islamic philosophy. It focuses on the thought of Mulla Sadrā and his theory of the act of being in relation to Deleuze’s theory of immanence. The essay is based on a reading of two new books on Deleuze and theology: Daniel Colucciello Barber’s, Deleuze and the Naming of God: Post-Secularism and the Future of Immanence, and F. LeRon Shults’, Deleuze and the Secretion of Atheism. 

You can read it at the journal, Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World (SCTIW).

This essay was difficult to write, but most certainly rewarding. It was difficult because I struggled to find a point of contrast within Deleuze’s theology which is adamantly atheist and Islamic philosophy which stands in many ways impervious to the secretion of atheism.

I picked up a theme from Barber’s text around his debate with Milbank on the important distinction he makes between peaceful and violent ontologies. To what extent can we explore Islam as a peaceful ontology? To answer this question, we must examine the relation of immanence and transcendence within Islamic philosophy and determine to what extent Islamic philosophy can be mapped onto this distinction. You’ll have to read my essay to discover the answer.