Religion and Culture

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interviews with religion and theology from his earliest studies of madness to the final Confessions of the Flesh - the unpublished fourth volume brings together work by Foucault on avant-garde religious themes, such as the death of God and the religous space of literatures, Foucault's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to Foucault's enigmatic work on Christian confession, Augustine and the early Church fathers which to this day remains unpublished in accordance with an interpretation of Foucault's final request.