This paper came about as a result of my surprise at Foucault's reference
to pastoral power as an "important form" of power (I refer here to the
text "Omnes et singulatim" and some chapters in Sécurité, Territoire,
Population). Up until the point when he specifically addresses the question
of the Christian pastorate, he always analyses pastoral power exclusively
from the point of view of the pastor himself, of his actions, of the
motives and principles that guide his actions; from the point of view of
the "ethics" in which this exercise of power is rooted, and also from the
point of view of his subjectivity or of the modes of subjectivization
which are typical for the kind of power he uses. Foucault never takes the
pastorate into account from the point of view of the herd or flock itself.
The herd, the sheep, is constantly and exclusively taken into
consideration as the sheer
