Religion and Culture

Postmodern theorist Michel Foucault is best known for his work on "power/ knowledge," and on the regulation of sexuality in modern society. Yet throughout his life, Foucault was continually concerned with Christianity, other spiritual movements and religious traditions, and the death of God, and these themes and materials scattered are throughout his many writings. "Religion and Culture" collects for the first time this important thinker's work on religion, religious experience, and society. Here are classic essays such as "The Battle for" "Chastity," alongside those that have been less widely read in English or in French. Selections are arranged in three groupings: Madness, Religion and the Avant-Garde; Religions, Politics and the East; and Christianity, Sexuality and the Self: Fragments of an Unpublished Volume. Ranging from Foucault's earliest studies of madness to "Confessions of the Flesh," the unpublished fourth volume of his "History of Sexuality," his final thoughts on early Christianity, Religion and Culture makes Foucault's work an indispensable part of contemporary religious thought, while also making an important link between religious studies and cultural studies.

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was one of the most important intellectual figures of the twentieth century. He is known for many significant writings, including The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969) and the first volume of The History of Sexuality (1976). Jeremy R. Carrette is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Stirling.