Divine negativity manifests plasticity, not lack or passivity

Evidence

If we insistently stress this relation, it is because it allows us to show that for Hegel, the divine negativity, conceived in its most radical form, does not manifest the lack or the passivity, but rather the plasticity of God. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 759

Consequently, God’s inner negativity can no longer be interpreted as ‘passivity’, unless we are to understand by this passivity the passivity of time itself. But since the passivity of time also is a gift of form, plasticity is demonstrably the right word. Invoking this name brings into play the future of God – God as the one ‘who sees (himself) coming’. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 825

Categorization

• DEFINE: Directly defines the book’s operative concept of plasticity against the misreading of divine negativity as lack.
• XREF: This reverses the classic kenotic readings (e.g. some death-of-God theologies and theologies of absence such as Altizer/Vahanian) where divine negativity means deprivation. — connects to: Psychoanalysis and neurology can only dialogue after accepting negative plasticity — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 4333; Plasticity names the negativity that is time’s gift of form — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 169; Plasticity is suppleness that is neither passion nor passivity — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 290 (+9 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Directly answers the reader’s driving question: passive receptivity and active form-giving are not two distinct states but one operation — plasticity dissolves the agency/passivity binary rather than tipping between poles.
• QUESTION: If passivity and agency are one plastic operation, what specifically tips the enemy’s world-forming receptivity into the explosive redefinition that escapes definers?
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 759; Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 825
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• God’s inner negativity is the passivity of time itself, hence plasticity #expands (0.95) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 825
• Plasticity enables authentic temporality’s characteristics to be conceived #expands (0.82) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1274
• Plasticity names the unity of spontaneity and receptivity in giving and receiving form #complicates (0.75)
• Freedom depends on theorizing the plasticity of transition #expands (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 229
• Plasticity inverts the Greek form-creation into the becoming-accidental of essence #expands (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 859