….it gets worse with Christian philosophy.
the positing of immanence remains pure philosophical instituting,
but at the same time it is tolerated only in very small doses;
it is strictly controlled and enframed by the demands
of an emanative and, above all, creative transcendence.

Putting their work and sometimes their
lives at risk,
all philosophers must prove that the dose
of immanence they inject into the world and mind
does not compromise the transcendence of a God
to which immanence must be attributed only secondarily.
(Nicholas of Cusa, Eckhart, Bruno)
Religious authority wants immanence to be tolerated
only locally or at an intermediary level—-

a little like a terraced fountain where water
can briefly immanate on each level but on condition
that it comes from a higher source and falls lower down
(transascendence and transdescendence, as Wahl said).

Immanence can be said to be the burning issue in all philosophy
because it takes on all the dangers that philosophy must confront,
all the condemnations, persecutions, and repudiations that it undergoes.

–Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guittari
excerpt What Is Philosophy page 45

Sometimes you just have to jump into the deep end of the pool in order to know for sure that you can swim.  If you read the above quote, it is likely you thought to yourself WTF, why did he post that?  My instincts tell me that those words are a description that penetrates deeply the zeitgeist of growing political siege warfare gnawing at all of us..

I just returned from Wheaton, standing on the curb on Main Street for almost two hours to enjoy the community 4th of July parade.  The parade is a clamorous exhibition of marching politicians, fire fighting equipment, a military color guard, high school bands, and floats promoting businesses and volunteer organizations in the community.  It was a glorious, raucous demonstration of the institutions that care for the needs of the community.

However, none of the participants, or the citizens like myself standing on the curb, could forget that on the coming Monday the President will announce his candidate for the Supreme Court.  His candidate will certainly be the tipping point that rolls back years of decisions that were the product of reasoned dialog and debate.  I anticipate a less humane society, where women, non-caucasians, and non binary-gendered individuals will be much more at risk.

As to the Deleuze and Guattari quotation: a core justification for a more severe, less open, a more divided society, is the stand taken on principles that many believe came from a transcendent source, that must never be questioned.

There is no reality than the colors and sounds of the parade, the smiling glad-handing politicians, and the cold mimosa that I drank.  Immanence !

Friend, it seems to me that there is no one around, no One else here but us chickens.  We’ve got to work out a way forward, with no expectation that the transcendent will save us, will whisper in our ear the magic formula.  It is all on us.•

Feel free to comment.  I will respond kindly.

•If you happen to subscribe to the evangelical world view, do not forget that Jesus died in exactly the same manner as the thousands of others who suffered Roman “justice.”  No slight-of-hand, side stepping of cause and effect.  What you see is all that you got.