Religion and Culture

by Jeremy Carrette, Jeremy R. Carrette (Editor)

The work of Michel Foucault (1926-84) has affected almost every discipline in the humanities, but few have appreciated how his work engaged with theological and religious themes. This reader brings together a selection of Foucault's essays, lectures and interviews with religion and theology from his earliest studies of madness to the final 'Confessions of the Flesh' - the unpublished fourth volume brings together work by Foucault on avant-garde religious themes, such as the death of God and the religous space of literatures, Foucault's brief encounter with Japanese culture, Zen Buddhism and the political spirituality of Iran. It also includes a collection of studies on Foucault's work on Christianity. These essays and lectures provide a background to Foucault's enigmatic work on Christian confession, Augustine and the early Church fathers which to this day remains unpublished in accordance with an interpretation of Foucault's final request.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Cultural, Ebooks, Theory, Theology

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 1999

Reviews

[Micah Rojo]

kind of random collection of lectures, interviews, and essays by foucault. they’re all good in their own right, idk together presented as a book.
introduction by carrette might have been good in the late 90s but rings flat today. the final essay by mark vernon is pretty good tho

[Bella Briška · Rating 3 out of 5]

Religion and culture is a subject too wide to compile different writings and talks on them. It leaves the impression of chaotic and unrelated topics chosen for this compilation, without thematic links between them.
That being said, the book still gave a useful insinght in Foucault’s views on religion.

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good/interesting essays here, but overall the compilation is a little outdated with the publication of the lectures series and Confessions of the Flesh.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foucault’s focus directly falls upon the pastoral power and the hermeneutics of the self which all developed within Christian ideology and practices. Through the Christian confession, implemented by the early church, a new form of knowledge is created through the confessor’s repeated analysis of their own individual sins and their actions are influenced by the knowledge that they will later have to confess each sin they commit. Foucault applies his routine critical approach to religion, primarily early Christianity, in much the same manner as he analyzed the prison system, sexuality, psychiatry, and the medical institution.

Foucault, who is commonly criticized for being a poor historian with bad sources who creates ideas from insufficient data, is commended for his use of scholarly sources when describing the roots of early sexuality within developing Christianity unlike when he was rifling through “obscure disciplinary codes of the 1800”.Criticism of his later works on sexuality and, vicariously, his work on the confession and pastoral power depict his work as respected and well-researched, which truly makes one ponder on how much more he could’ve affected thought had he not passed away.

Foucault recognizes Christianity as an ultimate power structure which imposes an obligation on its followers to accept its dogma, its sacred text and, most importantly, its authority as truth through confession and the pastoral power. People willingly submit to this much in the same way they submit to governmental and medical authority. Foucault doesn’t seek to understand why this phenomenon occurs just that it does.

[Roger Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a helpful compilation of Foucault's thoughts on religion. Essays, interviews, university talks...It's organized historically. I still think it's more useful to read his lectures in their entirety rather the extracting specific themes, as occurs in the later parts of this book.

[Harris Bin Munawar]

"I dream of an intellectual who destroys evidence and generalities"