Dispositives of political theology: Analysing non-discursive elements of the Josephinian dispositive of Pastoral Power

The aim of this essay is to study political theology in the context of a dispositive analysis following the conceptual framework outlined in the late work of Michel Foucault. Understanding political theology through its dispositives promises to provide an epistemological added value to traditional discourse analysis by examining discursive and non-discursive elements which were involved in the formation of the modern concept of pastoral power. It is further argued that this modern form of pastoral power emerged during the era of Enlightenment and gave birth to a specific institutional political theology legitimizing a progressive restoration of absolutist rule.