Title Empire of sacrifice : the religious origins of American violence / Jon Pahl

Published New York : New York University Press, ©2010

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 257 pages) : illustrations Contents Introduction : blessed brutalities -- Rethinking violence and religion in America -- Sacrificing youth : from Reefer madness to Hostel -- Sacrificing race : "the slaveholding religion" from Jarena Lee to Spike Lee -- Sacrificing gender : from "Republican mothers" to Defense of Marriage Acts -- Sacrificing humans : an empire of sacrifice from Mary Dyer to Dead man walking -- Epilogue : innocent domination in the "Global war on terror." Summary It is widely recognized that American culture is both exceptionally religious and exceptionally violent. Americans participate in religious communities in high numbers, yet American citizens also own guns at rates far beyond those of citizens in other industrialized nations. Since9/11, United States scholars have understandably discussed religious violence in terms of terrorist acts, a focus that follows United States policy. Yet, according to Jon Pahl, to identify religious violence only with terrorism fails to address the long history of American violence rooted in religion throughout the country's history. In essence, Americans have found ways to consider blessed some very brutal attitudes and behaviors both domestically and globally. In Empire of Sacrifice, Pahl explains how both of these distinctive features of American culture work together by exploring how constructions along the lines of age, race, and gender have operated to centralize cultural power across American civil or cultural religions in ways that don't always appear to be "religious" at all. Pahl traces the development of these forms of systemic violence throughout American history, using evidence from popular culture, including movies such as Rebel without a Cause and Reefer Madness and works of literature such as The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Handmaid's Tale, to illuminate historical events. Throughout, Pahl focuses an intense light on the complex and durable interactions between religion and violence in American history, from Puritan Boston to George W. Bush's Baghdad Analysis American Empire Pahl Sacrifice across age all along always appear both centralize civil constructions cultural culture distinctive dont explains exploring features gender have lines operated power race religions religious that these together ways work Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-249) and index Notes English Print version record Subject Christianity and culture -- United States Violence -- Religious aspects -- Christianity. Violence -- United States Sacrifice -- Social aspects -- United States RELIGION -- Christianity -- General. RELIGION -- Christian Life -- Social Issues. Christianity and culture Violence Violence -- Religious aspects -- Christianity SUBJECT United States -- Church history. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85139926 Subject United States Genre/Form Electronic books Church history Form Electronic book ISBN 9781441636645 1441636641 9780814768440 081476844X 9780814767641 0814767648

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