Foucault, Art, and Radical Theology: The Mystery of Things (Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies)

Michel Foucault wrote prolifically on many topics including, art, religion, and politics. He also eloquently articulated how power structures are formed and how they also might assist resistance and emancipation. This book uses the hermeneutical lens of Foucault’s writings on art to examine the performative, material, and political aspects of contemporary theology. The borderland between philosophy, theology, and art is explored through Foucault’s analyses of artists such as Diego Velázquez, Édouard Manet, René Magritte, Paul Rebeyrolle, and Gerard Fromanger. Here special focus is placed on performativity and materiality―or what the book terms the mystery of things. At successive junctures, the book discovers a postrepresentational critique of transcendence; an enigmatic material sacramentality; playful theopolitical accounts of the transformative force of stupidity and nonsense; and political imagery in motion enabling theological interpretations of contemporary collectives such as Pussy Riot and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. In conversation with contemporary thinkers including Catherine Keller, Louise-Marie Chauvet, John Caputo, Daniel Barber, Mark C. Taylor, Jeffrey W. Robbins, and Mattias Martinson, the book outlines this source of inspiration for contemporary radical theology. This is a book with a fresh and original take on Foucault, art, and theology. As such, it will have great appeal to scholars and academics in theology, religion and the arts, the philosophy of religion, political philosophy, and aesthetics. Michel Foucault wrote prolifically on many topics including, art, religion, and politics. He also eloquently articulated how power structures are formed and how they also might assist resistance and emancipation. This book uses the hermeneutical lens of Foucault's writings on art to examine the performative, material, and political aspects of contemporary theology. The borderland between philosophy, theology, and art is explored through Foucault's analyses of artists such as Diego Velazquez, Edouard Manet, Rene Magritte, Paul Rebeyrolle, and Gerard Fromanger. Here special focus is placed on performativity and materiality-or what the book terms the mystery of things. At successive junctures, the book discovers a postrepresentational critique of transcendence; an enigmatic material sacramentality; playful theopolitical accounts of the transformative force of stupidity and nonsense; and political imagery in motion enabling theological interpretations of contemporary collectives such as Pussy Riot and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. In conversation with contemporary thinkers including Catherine Keller, Louise-Marie Chauvet, John Caputo, Daniel Barber, Mark C. Taylor, Jeffrey W. Robbins, and Mattias Martinson, the book outlines this source of inspiration for contemporary radical theology. This is a book with a fresh and original take on Foucault, art, and theology. As such, it will have great appeal to scholars and academics in theology, religion and the arts, the philosophy of religion, political philosophy, and aesthetics Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Introduction Shifting relations between art and faith Foucault, theology, and spirituality Foucault on art and the ruin of representation Scope and terminology Overview of the argument 1 The surface of appearances: a mystery of things Language to infinity The surface and the death of man Thingness Materiality and spirituality 2 Velázquez: the place of theology Las Meninas Incompatible visibilities The invisible and the names The place of theology 3 Manet: material sacramentality Bataille on Manet Foucault on Manet Space Light Place Material theology Radical liturgical theology 4 Magritte: the betrayal of images Postrepresentational inspiration Magritte to Foucault Foucault: resemblance versus similitude Thinking in series From art to thought The freedom of thought to be thought The mystery of things and the apophatic 5 Rebeyrolle: theory as activism Political reawakening The BPP and the power of prison From archaeology to genealogy From power to the force of flight Theological indulgence 6 Fromanger: imagery in motion Narrative Figuration movement Representation revisited Series of photos and paint From subjectivity to imagery Pussy Riot: entangled theology Conclusion: marvels and actions Surface thingness as mystery The additive gesture Theology, art, and the mystery of things Pussy Riot and the postsecular Art and theopolitical activism Bibliography Index