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Beyond Self-Management: Re-Membering Soul

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Caring for Souls in a Neoliberal Age

Part of the book series: New Approaches to Religion and Power ((NARP))

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Abstract

Rogers-Vaughn addresses how to respond to the effects of neoliberalism, suggesting hope (as distinct from neoliberal optimism) as the necessary response to suffering and despair. Identifying two levels of unconsciousness endemic to third-order suffering—suffering that is not aware of itself as suffering and suffering that lacks awareness of its social origins—Rogers-Vaughn asserts that caring for souls must advance beyond self-management to the re-membering of soul. Rogers-Vaughn concludes that focused attention to suffering individuals offers a window into the dialectics of suffering as it appears under neoliberal governance. He draws from the new materialism and the notion of suffering as a form of resistance to critically reorient soul-care, using clinical material to illustrate this reorientation and suggest salient features for theorizing soul-care in the neoliberal age.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

    Bruce Rogers-Vaughn

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  1. Bruce Rogers-Vaughn
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Rogers-Vaughn, B. (2016). Beyond Self-Management: Re-Membering Soul. In: Caring for Souls in a Neoliberal Age. New Approaches to Religion and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55339-3_6

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