(Re)Turn Christian in the first century

Abstract

In the last decades, philosophers have shown a huge interest in Paul of Tarsus’s character. However, Michel Foucault didn’t give him a protagonist role in his research, as he did with Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, John Cassian or even St. Augustine. This may be due to his interest on the confessional regime of truth rather than on the faith’s regime of truth. From our perspective, certain aspects of Pauline discourse, and specially the details of the baptism practiced in his communities, offer us important clues to articulate theological and ethical (in a Foucauldian sense) elements that aid to explain what enables Christianity to massively produce relatively easy-to-govern subjects. The latter is also the main interest of Foucault’s research about pastoral power. This paper analyzes, after a very schematic genealogy from the notion of metánoia, these aspects, details and clues.