Toward the end of his life, Foucault had an unanticipated encounter with Christian texts when his History of Sexuality delved into the shaping of the Western self. Or so the story goes. In fact, Foucault had been writing about religion all along–in unexpected archives and unusual genres. Where is religion in the writing of Michel Foucault? And how is his work an example of writing well about religion?
Dr. Mark. D. Jordan is the Mellon Professor of Christian Thought and Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Harvard University. He taught previously at the University of Notre Dame and Emory University, among other schools. His works include The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology (1997), Rewritten Theology: Aquinas after His Readers (2006), and Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk about Homosexuality (2011). His latest book is Convulsing Bodies: Religion and Resistance in Foucault (2015).