Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American CulturePenn State Press, 10 սեպ, 2015 թ. - 288 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 42–ի 6-ից 10-ը:
Biblical Narratives in American Culture Christopher Collins. the borders or infest the hinterlands? Once personified, the national government could then, through metaphor, be invested with moral agency. Yet all such efforts to unify ...
... once an appropriate biblical text could be found and quoted. Civil religion has evolved to cope with the sort of discontents that Sigmund Freud recognized as endemic to modern nations. In the 1930s, as fascism was rising in Europe ...
... once. In the case of the population new to Western medicine, persons may similarly choose to adopt it, reject it, or forge a compromise position. Down through the centuries, certain religious groups and geographically sequestered ...
... Once we turn our attention to the institution of government, one of the first things we notice is that its very existence presupposes a partitioning of the communal level into groups variously defined—regionally, ethnically, religiously ...
... once I have to explain it, I don't know it.” 1 Every culture's members “know” what time is, but when asked to explain it, they are left with little more than analogies of movement. In one of these analogies, the observer is in motion ...
Բովանդակություն
Myths of Curses Myths of Blessings | |
Narratives of the Night | |
Abduction Narratives | |
Homeland Nostalgia and Holy | |
Secular Modernism Biblical Style | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |
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Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American Culture Christopher Collins Դիտել հնարավոր չէ - 2013 |