Preaching as master’s discourse. A Foucauldian interpretation of Lutheran pastoral power

Abstract

Michel Foucault acknowledged that the Reformation was a pastoral battle and a reorganization of pastoral power. He did not, however, analyze Protestantism much further. This article broadens the scope of critical research on Protestantism, focusing on Lutheranism. Preaching is a fruitful way to overcome overemphasis on confession. In this endeavor I apply Foucault’s concept of “master’s discourse.” I argue that while, in Lutheranism, conversion through comprehensive soul-searching is an individual matter, at the same time it relies on technologies aimed at a collective audience, such as preaching. Since preaching is divine speech, the Lutheran priest wields enormous spiritual power: the preacher is the truth-teller and the subject is required to listen to and internalize the proclaimed truth, instead of confessing their sins.

Confessional critiques: Parrhesia and avowal in contemporary anti-racist discourses

“…Here, the necessary social qualification of the parrhesiast or the virtue of the critic becomes clear (Maxwell, 2019). Later history sees confession and parrhesia hybridised, for instance, moralising sermons which drew on personal testimony wherein ‘…preaching intensifies the very sense of guilt for which it provides absolution’ (Tilli, 2019, p. 120). Furthermore, parrhesia is not only found in public critique but involved in self-examination, including the ‘spiritual exercises’ which precede confession as a ‘technique of self’.…”

“…Modes of ‘subjectification’ are so central to Foucault’s diagnosis of power that his politics is sometimes summarised through his invitation to ‘refuse what we are’, framing a host of contemporary contestations around the governmentalisation of identity. Before tracing the contours of confession however, it is worth noting the genealogical complexity: ‘parrhesia’ was used to describe the frank speech of Judaic prophets and evangelisers from Isaiah to St Paul and Luther translated parrhesia as speaking freely or even brazenly (Tilli, 2019, p. 122).…”

“…Importantly, pastoral power is not limited to institutional requirements in schools, work, therapy or other disciplinary institutions that subjects must tell the truth about themselves, wherein ‘…life as a whole is a de-ritualized site of repentance’ (Tilli, 2019, p. 125). While modelling confession and self-transformation by avowing culpability, the anti-racist authors discussed above are certainly critics, ‘calling out’ prejudice and oppression.…”

Instruments of immolation: Giorgio Agamben and the Eucharistic reformations of the sixteenth century

“…Its spiritual effectiveness is made manifest in practical acts of love as well as in a new disposition. Ascertaining the latter is the task of the individual Lutheran subject herself, and it is a task that is totalizing and entirely subjective (Tilli 2019, 125). The fruits of the sacrament, its works, are to be pursued in every theater of life, from the patriarchal household to the military barracks, with every member of the priesthood of all believers monitoring themselves for spiritual progress.…”