Abstract

Spirituality and struggle in Foucault. The role of spiritual combat In the first two chapters of Confessions of the Flesh the Christian notion of spiritual combat is presented by Foucault as a double paradoxical self-practice of Christian mortification and pastoral power. It is both, constant negative fight against one-self, and never-ending internal war against the temptations of the soul. This rather negative idea of spiritual combat is contrasted with Foucault’s rather positive ideas of war, fight, power, resistance, revolt and spirituality, and ‘the circle of struggle and truth’. It is argued that spiritual combat is used by Foucault both as an extension of his theory of (self-)discipline and as stepping stone to his presentation of the (late) Stoic ascetism of self-care and truth struggle.