Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American CulturePenn State Press, 10 սեպ, 2015 թ. - 289 էջ Since 9/11, America has presented itself to the world as a Christianist culture, no less antimodern and nostalgic for an idealized past than its Islamist foes. The master-narrative both sides share might sound like this: Once upon a time, the values of the righteous community coincided with those of the state. Home and land were harmoniously united under God. But through intellectual pride (read: science) and disobedience (read: human rights), this God-blessed homeland was lost and is now worth every drop of blood it takes, ours and others’, to recover. For Americans, the prime source for this once-and-future-kingdom myth is the Bible, with its many narratives of blessings gained, lost, and regained: the garden of Eden, the covenant with Abraham, the bondage in Egypt, the exodus under Moses, the glory of David and Solomon’s realm, the coming of the promised Messiah, his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, his apocalyptic return at the end of history, and his establishment of the earthly kingdom of God. As Homeland Mythology shows, these biblical narratives have, over time, inspired a multitude of nationalist narratives, myths ingeniously spun out to justify a number of decidedly unchristian policies and institutions—from Indian genocide, the slave trade, and the exploitation of immigrant workers to Manifest Destiny, imperial expansionism, and, most recently, preemptive war. On March 25, 2001, George W. Bush shared a bit of political wisdom: “You can fool some of the people all of the time—and those are the ones you have to concentrate on.” The cynical use of religion to cloak criminal behavior is always worth exposing, but why our leaders lie to us is no longer a mystery. What does remain mysterious is why so many of us are disposed to believe their lies. The unexamined issue that this book addresses is, therefore, not the mendacity of the few, but the credulity of the many. |
From inside the book
Արդյունքներ 27–ի 1-ից 5-ը:
... Bush portrayed himself as a “uniter, not a divider.”4 His administration has, by most estimates, polarized the nation, but perhaps his phrase was misinterpreted. In retrospect, his candidacy seems to have been designed to unite the ...
... Bush, New York, from whom and with whom I have learned the meaning of community; to Scott Marshall for his help in designing my diagrams and in overcoming my natural tendency to misunderestimate the monstrousness of the “New American ...
... Bush administration—from isolationism and Christian-Right pieties to internationalism and the praise of “true Islamic values”—should have surprised no one. As Constantine the Great proved, the civil-religious conversion experience may ...
... Bush administration tried to mobilize public opinion in 1990 to turn back Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, it packaged its appeal in mythic terms that the linguist George Lakoff then characterized as the “Fairy Tale of the Just War.” In his ...
... Bush's advisers floated a similar pair of scenarios. They revised the rescue scenario, this time making the victim the Iraqi people—many of whom, it was said, had been literally kidnapped and raped by Saddam Hussein's thugs. Americans ...
Բովանդակություն
1 | |
23 | |
3 Myths of Curses Myths of Blessings | 59 |
4 Narratives of the Night | 91 |
5 Abduction Narratives | 121 |
6 Homeland Nostalgia and Holy War | 153 |
7 Secular Modernism Biblical Style | 189 |
Notes | 225 |
Bibliography | 249 |
Index | 257 |
Back Cover | 264 |
Այլ խմբագրություններ - View all
Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American Culture Christopher Collins Դիտել հնարավոր չէ - 2013 |