Yes, I'd think so. If Foucault didn't go on and on about the problem
of religious power, it's probably because his main target was its
secularized version. We think we have made "progress," though we may
have merely internalized formerly external regulations provided by
religious authorities in pre-modern worlds. It's this complacent
faith in progress (whether under capitalism or socialism) through
secularization and modernization that Foucault wanted to call into
question.
Yoshie
On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Chetan Vemuri <aryavartacnsrn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I would love to check out that book and chapter.
>
> But surely Foucault shared Nietzsche's suspicion of the oppressive nature of
> organized religious morality in Europe?
>
> On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 12:53 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi <
> critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Check out a chapter titled "Michel Foucault and Zen: A Stay in a Zen
>> Temple (1978)" in Religion and Culture, ed. Jeremy R. Carrette. In
>> this book, there are also passing mentions of Hinduism with regard to
>> the West's Orientalist interest in Eastern cultures and the
>> similarities between Christian monasticism and other monasticisms
>> including the Hindu variety. I can't recall Foucault ever said
>> anything about the caste system, though. Generally speaking, I don't
>> think Foucault deeply investigated religion as a relation of power
>> (and its relation to political economy) except in the case of
>> Christianity.
>>
>> Yoshie