This dissertation is an attempt to develop an Augustinian response to
political problems diagnosed by Michel Foucault's analysis of modern political
power. Foucault argues that the primary acts of power in the modern age are not
repressive acts but creative ones. Instead of prohibiting acts, political power
disciplines, rehabilitates and normalizes. The result of this is a disciplined and
docile subject within which relations of power are so deeply embedded that
'liberation' can only bring about their entrenchment and the absorption of all
aspects of life into the political structures they represent. Foucault's alternative
consists in practices of aesthetic self-creation not linked to transcendent or natural
construals of order. William Connolly extends Foucault's argument by criticizing
Augustine as a thinker projecting a moral order onto the world and then
categorizing the world on the basis of this order. This contrasts with Connolly's
attempt to derive political practice from ethical sources that do not attempt to
order the cosmos unambiguously . I use John Milbank to begin an Augustinian
response as Milbank understands Augustine as developing an ontology grounded
in the priority of peace and plenitude to violence and scarcity. This provides the
basis for my argument that within Augustine's account of the purposive nature of
love and desire within the subject lies an implicit critique of Foucault's ethic of
aesthetic self-creation. What follows this is an attempt to outline the significant
characteristics of a political posture formed by the practice of the Eucharist.
These characteristics provide an alternative to both modem political practice and
Foucauldian practice. The final chapter applies this Augustinian political posture
to the realms of sexuality, on one hand, and punishment and discipline, on the
other. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/15724 |
| Date | 02 1900 |
| Creators | Colborne, Nathan |
| Contributors | Kroeker, Travis, Religious Studies |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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