Ep. 37 – Daniel C. Barber, Deleuze and the Naming of God

In this week’s episode, James joins Rachel and John in NYC to discuss Daniel Colucciello Barber’s Deleuze and the Naming of God: Post-Secularism and the Future of Immanence. The discussion focuses on the introduction, and chapters 2, 4, and the conclusion. They begin by discussing Barber’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God, […]

In this week’s episode, James joins Rachel and John in NYC to discuss Daniel Colucciello Barber’s Deleuze and the Naming of God: Post-Secularism and the Future of Immanence. The discussion focuses on the introduction, and chapters 2, 4, and the conclusion. They begin by discussing Barber’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God, and how this forms Barber’s  framework of immanence and transcendence. They tease out the relationship of God to the limits of the imagination and of the necessity of the imagination to world making, and how Baber sees this process as thus always already political.

The conversation also focuses on Barber’s working through Deleuze’s idea of immanence as an ongoing dynamic of re-expression that demands and opens up the possibility for the political act of world making. Barber presents this view of Deleuze as useful for a theology and religious studies focus on a post-secular immanence. Questions of temporality and the difference between epistemology, metaphysics, and ontology make their appearance along with lots of crystals before the episode closes with the interpretation of a sweaty but affirming dream.

Thanks to listener Tapji for suggesting we read this text.  Requests for texts for us to discuss? Dreams for us to interpret? Advice questions for us to answer? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Twitter. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 of the episode here. RSS feed here. Thanks to Leah Dion and to B for the music.

https://alwaysalreadypodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/barber-ep.mp3

Links:

Barber’s page at ICI Berlin and the book’s page at Edinburgh UP
Review of the book by Joshua Ramey at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
An interview with Barber on the My Name is My Name podcast
Barber’s other book, On Diaspora: Christianity, Religion, and Secularity