Archives and the Event of God: The Impact of Michel Foucault on Philosophical Theology (Mcgill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion)

The philosophical works of Michel Foucault have profoundly influenced many disciplines, but his influence on theology has seldom been considered. Archives and the Event of God unravels the effects that Foucault's Archaeology of Knowledge and Discipline and Punish have had on the study of theology and religion. Beginning with a study of the concept of archaeology, the meaning of the statement, and the understanding of an epistemic event, David Galston provides a novel synthesis of Foucault's work on genealogy and the ways in which the statement can be united with power and productivity in the archive. Arguing that archaeology and genealogy give rise to two new theologies, Galston develops concepts that enable us to critique theology, religion, and God as archive events that can be accounted for in the operations of power and resolution to statements. A unique and new agenda in the philosophy of religion, Archives and the Event of God is an insightful and sophisticated study that outlines novel ways to think of religion in the postmodern era.