Saving the Soul through Dieting

How did early modern religious educational institutions govern pupils’ health, organisms, and souls? This dissertation examines how Halle Pietism developed systematic practices for governing physical and spiritual health—intertwining theological, medical, and pedagogical concerns in the effort to shape pious Christian subjects. Through a detailed analysis of key figures such as August Hermann Francke and Christian Friedrich Richter’s rationalities of health and the body, and the institutional practices of Die Franckeschen Anstalten, the study demonstrates how the governance of humoral balance and spiritual care became inseparable between 1698 and 1759.

Introducing the concept of biopastoral pedagogy, the study offers a Foucauldian-inspired account of how health governance in Brandenburg-Prussia emerged within a pastoral logic that addressed both the biology of the body and the care of the soul. In doing so, it challenges the dominant narrative of biopower as a secular phenomenon and highlights the formative role of religious institutions in shaping modern regimes of health governance.