Thinking Spirituality Differently: Michel Foucault on Spiritual Self-Practices, Counter-Conducts, and Power-Knowledge Constellations
Titus Brandsma Institute/Center for Contemporary European Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Religions 2019, 10(2), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020081
Received: 23 December 2018
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Revised: 26 January 2019
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Accepted: 26 January 2019
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Published: 28 January 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Transformation in Contemporary World)
In contemporary debates on the so-called “return of religion” in new forms and practices of spirituality, the spiritual practices are often seen as emerging on the ruins of a fragmented and outdated religious tradition. In this article an attempt is made to conceptualize spirituality beyond the religion-secularization divide. An alternative perspective on spirituality is developed through a reading of Michel Foucault’s writings and lectures on spiritual practices in antique philosophy and in Christianity. In this perspective the modalities of individual spiritual practices are largely dependent on interactions with dominant power-knowledge regimes and problematizations of individual lives. This article argues that this perspective on the spiritual practices in the West has the potential of making a valuable contribution to interpretations of present-day spirituality and lived religiosity.
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Keywords:
foucault; spirituality; religion; counter-conduct; self-practice; hermeneutics of the subject
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MDPI and ACS Style
Westerink, H. Thinking Spirituality Differently: Michel Foucault on Spiritual Self-Practices, Counter-Conducts, and Power-Knowledge Constellations. Religions 2019, 10, 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020081
AMA Style
Westerink H. Thinking Spirituality Differently: Michel Foucault on Spiritual Self-Practices, Counter-Conducts, and Power-Knowledge Constellations. Religions. 2019; 10(2):81. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020081
Chicago/Turabian StyleWesterink, Herman. 2019. "Thinking Spirituality Differently: Michel Foucault on Spiritual Self-Practices, Counter-Conducts, and Power-Knowledge Constellations" Religions 10, no. 2: 81. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020081
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