Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics, eds. Antonaccio, Bucar, Clairmont, Schweiker, 2022
In Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche notoriously describes the historical development of "... more In Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche notoriously describes the historical development of "that other 'somber thing,' the consciousness of guilt, the 'bad conscience'" (Nietzsche 1989, II.4). He extols the Arcadian freedom of "the noble"-"he who is by nature 'master,' he who is violent in act and bearing"-as honestly expressing the human instinct to conquer and dominate (Nietzsche 1989, II.17). The fall into the "bad conscience" comes with "the ascetic priest" who is physically weak and so must redirect his dominating instinct against others through cunning manipulation and "spiritual revenge" (Nietzsche 1989, II.2). Nietzsche declares: "an ascetic life is a self-contradiction: here rules a ressentiment without equal, that of an insatiable instinct and power-will that wants to become master not over something in life but over life itself" (Nietzsche 1989, III.11). Nobles conquer others, as ascetics conquer the vitality of life. Despite this perversion, Nietzsche also recognizes the ascetic as productive precisely through their self-vitiation, coming to shape subjectivity at the intersection of physical weakness and psychological cunning: All instincts that do not discharge themselves outwardly turn inward-this is what I call the internalization [Verinnerlichung] of man: thus it was that man first developed what was later called his "soul." (Nietzsche 1989, II.16) Ascetics redirect dominating instincts inwards, negating the domination Nietzsche considers definitional for being human. This ascetic disciplining then renders the human being an "interesting animal" (Nietzsche 1989, I.6) who manipulates others into sharing constructions of "good" and "evil." In a fascinating tension, ascetics negate their own vitality through self-denying practices, while also forging internal mechanisms that enable the productive regulation of subjects and society. As Tyler Roberts argues, "Nietzsche's writing does not reject but refigures asceticism" (Roberts 1996, 404). Ascetic mechanisms include not only world-denying forces of vitiation but also world-making forces of production. While Nietzsche's ascetics deny their own virility, they cunningly affirm an interiority (the "soul") regulated by moral injunctions and shape society in their life-subjugating image. Nietzsche critically transvalues modern morality, while also recognizing the productive side of asceticism. Even his invective suggests the intersection between vitiation and formation, subjection and production, asceticism and CHAPTER 40
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Books by Niki Clements
Sexuality, Volume 4: Confessions of the Flesh) thirty-four years after his
death highlights and complicates the relevance of Christian texts—notably
from the second through fifth centuries—to Foucault’s forms of
critical analysis between 1974 and 1984, as his interests migrate from
monastic disciplines to pastoral power to governmentality to the care of
the self. What begins as suspicion towards confession as a tool of Catholic
power anticipating modern psychoanalysis becomes a critical genealogy
of subjectivity from western antiquity to modernity. To frame Foucault’s
dynamic engagement with forms of Christianity, I establish three stages
over his last decade as he moves from diagnosing mechanisms of power
to analyzing ethics as care of the self. Tracing Foucault’s textual and critical developments enables better analysis of Confessions of the Flesh and affirms methodological possibilities in the study of religion today.
Michel Foucault’s readings of Cassian as anticipating modern subjectivity vis-à-vis attention to obedience, submission, and self-renunciation are particularly important. The 2018 posthumous publication of Foucault’s Les Aveux de la chair (and the 2021 translation, History of Sexuality, Volume 4: Confessions of the Flesh) features Foucault’s reading of Cassian, alongside other early Christian authors, highlighting the need to understand Cassian and better situate Cassian’s texts. Instead of Foucault’s focus on interiority and confession, Sites engages Cassian’s ethics as contributing to contemporary reframings of religion as practice-centered, sharing methodological innovations with scholarship in the philosophy of religion that foregrounds the work of the body, the emotions, and inter-sociality, alongside the role of critical reflection.
With a focus on the lived experience and practical ethics of Cassian, I argue for constructions of ethics in asceticism as a lens to both critique and deepen our understanding of constructions of power—following the critical moves that Foucault himself develops. By challenging modern assumptions about Cassian’s asceticism, Sites of the Ascetic Self proposes a new way to think about questions of ethics, subjectivity, and ethical agency in the study of religion today.
Papers by Niki Clements
Edited by Verheyden J., Roskam G., Heirman A., Leemans J.
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 329
Sexuality, Volume 4: Confessions of the Flesh) thirty-four years after his
death highlights and complicates the relevance of Christian texts—notably
from the second through fifth centuries—to Foucault’s forms of
critical analysis between 1974 and 1984, as his interests migrate from
monastic disciplines to pastoral power to governmentality to the care of
the self. What begins as suspicion towards confession as a tool of Catholic
power anticipating modern psychoanalysis becomes a critical genealogy
of subjectivity from western antiquity to modernity. To frame Foucault’s
dynamic engagement with forms of Christianity, I establish three stages
over his last decade as he moves from diagnosing mechanisms of power
to analyzing ethics as care of the self. Tracing Foucault’s textual and critical developments enables better analysis of Confessions of the Flesh and affirms methodological possibilities in the study of religion today.
Michel Foucault’s readings of Cassian as anticipating modern subjectivity vis-à-vis attention to obedience, submission, and self-renunciation are particularly important. The 2018 posthumous publication of Foucault’s Les Aveux de la chair (and the 2021 translation, History of Sexuality, Volume 4: Confessions of the Flesh) features Foucault’s reading of Cassian, alongside other early Christian authors, highlighting the need to understand Cassian and better situate Cassian’s texts. Instead of Foucault’s focus on interiority and confession, Sites engages Cassian’s ethics as contributing to contemporary reframings of religion as practice-centered, sharing methodological innovations with scholarship in the philosophy of religion that foregrounds the work of the body, the emotions, and inter-sociality, alongside the role of critical reflection.
With a focus on the lived experience and practical ethics of Cassian, I argue for constructions of ethics in asceticism as a lens to both critique and deepen our understanding of constructions of power—following the critical moves that Foucault himself develops. By challenging modern assumptions about Cassian’s asceticism, Sites of the Ascetic Self proposes a new way to think about questions of ethics, subjectivity, and ethical agency in the study of religion today.
Edited by Verheyden J., Roskam G., Heirman A., Leemans J.
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 329