Michel Foucault and Theology

by Bernauer, James; Carrette, Jeremy

• ISBN13: 9780754633549
• ISBN10: 0754633543
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Ltd

Summary

Whilst Foucault's work has become a major strand of postmodern theology, the wider relevance of his work for theology still remains largely unexamined. Foucault both engages the Christian tradition and critically challenges its disciplinary regime.Michel Foucault and Theology brings together a selection of essays by leading Foucault scholars on a variety of themes within the history, thought and practice of theology. Revealing the diverse ways that the work of Michel Foucault (1926-1984) has been employed to rethink theology in terms of power, discourse, sexuality and the politics of knowledge, the authors examine power and sexuality in the church in late antiquity, (Castelli, Clark, Schuld), raise questions about the relationship between theology and politics (Bernauer, Leezenberg, Caputo), consider new challenges to the nature of theological knowledge in terms of Foucault's critical project (Flynn, Cutrofello, Beadoin, Pinto) and rethink theology in terms of Foucault's work on the history of sexuality (Carrette, Jordan, Mahon). This book demonstrates, for the first time, the influence and growing importance of Foucault' work for contemporary theology.

Table of Contents

List of Authors	vii
Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction: The Enduring Problem: Foucault, Theology and Culture	1	(18)
James Bernauer and Jeremy Carrette
Part One Foucault and the Church in Late Antiquity
1 Interpretations of Power in 1 Corinthians	19	(20)
Elizabeth A. Castelli
2 Foucault, the Fathers and Sex	39	(18)
Elizabeth A. Clark
3 Augustine, Foucault and the Politics of Imperfection	57	(20)
J. Joyce Schuld
Part Two Foucault, Politics and Theology
4 Michel Foucault's Philosophy of Religion: an Introduction to the Non-Fascist Life	77	(22)
James Bernauer
5 Power and Political Spirituality: Michel Foucault on the Islamic Revolution in Iran	99	(18)
Michiel Leezenberg
6 On Not Knowing Who We Are: Madness,Hermeneutics and the Night of Truth in Foucault	117	(26)
John D. Caputo
Part Three Foucault and Theological Knowledge
7 Partially Desacralized Spaces: the Religious Availability of Foucault's Thought	143	(14)
Thomas R. Flynn
8 Exomologesis and Aesthetic Reflection: Foucault's Response to Habermas	157	(14)
Andrew Cutrofello
9 From Singular to Plural Domains of Theological Knowledge: Notes Toward a Foucaultian New Question	171	(20)
Thomas Beaudoin
10 The M9re Which Exceeds Us: Foucault, Roman Catholicism and Inter-faith Dialogue	191	(26)
Henrique Pinto
Part Four Foucault, Theology and Sexuality
11 Beyond Theology and Sexuality: Foucault, the Self and the Que(e)rying of Monotheistic Truth	217	(16)
Jeremy Carrette
12 Sodomites and Churchmen: the Theological Invention of Homosexuality	233	(12)
Mark D. Jordan
13 Catholic Sex	245	(22)
Michael Mahon
Name Index	267	(4)
General Index	271