http://percaritatem.com Non intratur in veritatem nisi per caritatem. St. Augustine Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:01:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In the Gospel of St. Luke 17.11-19, we read of Jesus’ healing of ten lepers.  Of the ten lepers, only one took the time to thank Jesus for his healing.  In fact, the text says that this man expressed his gratitude vocally and bodily.  “[O]ne of them, when he saw ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/03/10/the-samaritan-other-the-practice-of-mercy-living-in-gratitude-and-being-a-neighbor/ In his essay, “The Subject and Power,” Foucault defines the exercise of power as “a mode of action upon the actions of others.”  The exercise of power can be either positive or negative.  Considered from a positive point of view, it involves the “governing”—understood in the broadest sense as training, ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/03/06/foucault-on-relations-of-power-and-relations-of-constraint-is-chattel-slavery-the-former-the-latter-or-both/ In this post, I revisit (by way of Heller’s essay) Foucault’s articulation of a power-diagram and discuss the differences between tactics and strategies.  Heller provides a helpful explanation of Foucault’s seemingly paradoxical claim, “power relations are both intentional and non-subjective.”  First, Heller reminds us that a pre-existing power-diagram must be ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/03/01/part-ii-power-subjectification-and-resistance-in-foucault/ In his essay, “Power, Subjectification and Resistance in Foucault,” Kevin Jon Heller argues against common misreadings of central notions in Foucault’s thought.  For example, many scholars claim that Foucault’s understanding of power-relations leaves us with a wholly passive subject, in effect a non-agent unable to resist oppressive cultural, political, economic ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/02/25/part-i-power-subjectification-and-resistance-in-foucault/ In Frederick Douglass’s first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, he describes his first six months with “master” Covey, a well-known “slave-breaker” to whom he had been sent due to his so-called “disciplinary” issues.  Douglass was about sixteen years old during his stay with Covey, ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/02/17/frederick-douglass-and-the-masterslave-dialectic/ Does a study of the NT itself show that that the apostles unequivocally believed that Christ’s return was imminent in their lifetime?  Is it the case that as a result of this belief, the apostles and their early followers lived a radically devout life of prayer, contemplation etc. and likewise ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/02/04/eschatological-developments-within-the-pauline-corpus/ Rowan Williams’ little book on the church, Why Study the Past?  The Quest for the Historical Church, is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the historical and theological complexities of the continuity and discontinuity of the Church.  As usual, Williams does not offer overly facile solutions, nor does ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/01/11/rowan-williams-on-the-complexities-of-the-church%e2%80%99s-history-and-identity/ In the middle of a paragraph discussing how sex gradually became a discourse, Foucault writes, Silence itself--the thing one declines to say, or is forbidden to name, the discretion that is required between different speakers--is less the absolute limit of discourse, the other side from which it is separated by a ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/01/09/foucault-on-what-is-said-in-silence/ A commenter recently asked a good question related to this post on Fanon.  The person asks whether Kant’s categorical imperative might militate against Carter’s accusation that Kant manifests a “possessive-tyrannical disposition” in his writings.  Since this is a natural question that anyone who has at least some familiarity with Kant ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/01/05/kant%e2%80%99s-categorical-failure-or-a-racialized-cosmopolitanism/ In Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon presents his two-fold schemata, the historico-racial (schéma historico-racial) and epidermal racial schemata (schéma épidermique racial) as a corrective to Merleau-Ponty’s corporeal schema (schéma corporel).  In brief, Fanon’s historico-racial schema brings to light the historical contingencies and mythological narratives imposed upon blacks, whereas the ... http://percaritatem.com/2010/01/01/fanon-foucault-and-the-interiorization-of-a-panoptic-gaze/