Pathology, therapeutic discipline and its limits in augustine: A dialogue with foucauldian readings

Abstract

Recently, there has been some attempt to reframe the Augustinian view of political realism in terms of the Foucauldian concept of resistance and discipline, which resonates with another Foucauldian, post-colonial understanding of Augustine. This paper shows how Augustine envisages critical resistance and counter-disciplines in the midst of the earthly city’s domination, as it addresses the political realist emphasis on resistance within the networks of power and the post-colonial emphasis on institutional disciplines. Redefining political realism as the tragic ambiguity of healing intermixed with disease, it examines how Augustine suggests social criticism against the earthly city’s diseased networks of disciplinary power, civic rituals, and ethos, and the heavenly city’s counter-disciplines encompassing the sacraments, oration, rebuke, coercion, and civic virtues. However, Augustine’s emphasis on social criticism and counter-disciplines does not lead to a resort to the disciplinary measures of human control but aims for spiritual freedom and the effect of grace.