References

*Cf. Michel Foucault, “Power,” The Essential Works 1954–1884, Volume 3, Penguin Books, 1994. Also “Ethics,” The Essential Works, Volume I, 1994.

†For a survey of the sociology of human illness, see Simon J. Williams and Gilian Bendelow’s The Lived Body, Sociological Themes and Embodied Issues, London and New York, Routledge, 1998, which includes discussion of ontological status of the body, social constructionist accounts of medical knowledge, the metaphorical nature of disease, medicalization, surveillance and control of bodies, and the dilemmas of high-tech medicine.

‡See Foucault M. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. London, Tavistock 1973. Discussion can also be found in Armstrong D. Political Anatomy of the Body: Medical Knowledge in Britain in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1983.

§In The Birth of the Clinic (p 146), Foucault quotes the nineteenth-century pathologist, Bichat: “Open up a few corpses: you will dissipate at once the darkness that observation alone could not dissipate.” He comments (p 195): “… the whole dark underside of disease came to light, at the same time illuminating and eliminating itself like night.”

∥See Jewson ND. The disappearance of the sick man from medical cosmologies: 1770–1870. Sociology 1976;10:225–244.

¶Especially developed in Discipline and Punish, The Birth of the Prison. Penguin, 1977, cf. esp. pp 25–26. For an important discussion of this question cf. Judith Butler. The Psychic Life of Power. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1997.

#Foucault’s analysis of power is significant not only in its tracing of the negative dynamics of power but especially in his understanding of its positive distribution. Although Foucault draws upon Nietzsche for some of his central insights into the relationship between power and body in his understanding of the ubiquity of power relations he rejects a purely hierarchical account of its distribution. He argues that power so permeates all aspects of human interaction that it creates a multiplicity of power relations other than those that are configured to domination—power is something that circulates rather than follows a chain. (cf. Gordon C (ed). Power/Knowledge, Selected interviews, 1972-77. p 98). Given this, he argues that we should conduct an analysis of this circulation not from “above” which is essentially a functionalist analysis but from “below”—the “microphysics” of power. (Essential Works, vol. 3, pp 123–124) That is why he chooses the site of the body and introduces the notion of “biopower” or the disciplining of the body (Cf. Discipline and Punish, 1977). However, Foucault is disinclined to give much weight to the “intention” of those who exercise power. In these remarks I am suggesting that that is a mistake as in certain exchanges of power there are presuppositions about intentions which actually facilitate the movement and are necessary for the positive exercise of power.

**For a useful discussion of the significance of Foucault’s thought for organizations and the dynamics of power cf. Stewart Clegg et. al. Power and Organisations. London, Sage Publications, 2006, pp 228.

††For an insightful discussion of the function of bureaucracy in organizations cf. Yiannis Gabriel etal. Organisations in Depth. London, Sage, 1999, especially pp 103.

‡‡See Campbell AV. Professional Care: Its Meaning and Practice. London and Philadelphia, SPCK, 1984, pp 17–33, for a discussion of medical power. For diverse perspectives on theology and medicine, see Theological Analyses of the Clinical Encounter, ed. McKenny, GP, Sande JR, Theology and Medicine, volume 3. Dordrecht, Boston and London, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993.

§§ The Pastoral Care of the Sick, Rites of Anointing and Viaticum.ET from Ordo Unctionis Infirmorum, Vatican Polyglot Press, 1982. Especially useful for understanding the sacrament is the introductions, The Apostolic Constitution, promulgated by Paul VI which sets out the basis of the sacrament in scripture and tradition and General Introduction, which also gives significant indications concerning the ministry of caring for the sick.

∥∥In this sacramental context which I take to be determinative, the biblical sense of “reverence” being awe, respect, and fear is transposed into the richer understanding of God’s self-revelation as the career of his people. This reverencing is an honoring whose inspiration is love. It reaches its fulfillment in Christ’s revelation of the Father’s love. In this sense, a much closer approximation to the sense and the action of reverence/reverencing lies in the notion of God’s trustworthiness, loyalty, fidelity which carries with it a future assurance—God’s unswerving reliable “chesed” or loving kindness—that which is lasting and true (in Hebrew, “aman/”emet). The wonderful parable of this is the Good Samaritan, in which the Samaritan’s care is a reverencing which mirrors God’s care, even making provision for the future process of recovery.