Passionate Belief: William James, Emotion and Religious Experience

This essay appears in the first collection of papers on Foucault and theology. The book was an attempt by Bernauer and Carrette to bring together a variety of engagements with Foucault’s thought since his death in 1984 in order to capture a watershed in the intellectual exchange. It has become a defining text in this genre. The article captures this new frontier of engagements by trying to explore the implications of Foucault’s genealogy of sexuality in terms of how his work inspired writings in gay and lesbian literature known as ‘queer theory’. The article explores the close relation between discourses of sexuality and theology and attempts to show how Foucault’s rejection of sexuality presents a challenge to monotheistic theology. The position is substantiated by excursions into Foucault’s model of the self and examinations of Buddhist traditions, which develop concepts of desire not sexuality. The article shows the importance of Foucault’s work for rethinking theology in terms of contemporary discussions of queer sexuality.