Download or read book Religion Empire and Torture written by Bruce Lincoln and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does religion stimulate and feed imperial ambitions and violence? Recently this question has acquired new urgency, and in Religion, Empire, and Torture, Bruce Lincoln approaches the problem via a classic but little-studied case: Achaemenian Persia. Lincoln identifies three core components of an imperial theology that have transhistorical and contemporary relevance: dualistic ethics, a theory of divine election, and a sense of salvific mission. Beyond this, he asks, how did the Achaemenians understand their place in the cosmos and their moral status in relation to others? Why did they feel called to intervene in the struggle between good and evil? What was their sense of historic purpose, especially their desire to restore paradise lost? And how did this lead them to deal with enemies and critics as imperial power ran its course? Lincoln shows how these religious ideas shaped Achaemenian practice and brought the Persians unprecedented wealth, power, and territory, but also produced unmanageable contradictions, as in a gruesome case of torture discussed in the book’s final chapter. Close study of that episode leads Lincoln back to the present with a postscript that provides a searing and utterly novel perspective on the photographs from Abu Ghraib.
Download or read book Gods and Demons Priests and Scholars written by Bruce Lincoln and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-07-09 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bruce Lincoln is one of the most prominent advocates within religious studies for an uncompromisingly critical approach to the phenomenon of religion—historians of religions, he believes, should resist the preferred narratives and self-understanding of religions themselves, especially when their stories are endowed with sacred origins and authority. In Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars, Lincoln assembles a collection of essays that both illustrates and reveals the benefits of his methodology, making a case for a critical religious studies that starts with skepticism but is neither cynical nor crude. The book begins with Lincoln’s “Theses on Method” and ends with “The (Un)discipline of Religious Studies,” in which he unsparingly considers the failings of uncritical and nonhistorical approaches to the study of religions. In between, Lincoln presents new examinations of problems in ancient religions and relates these cases to larger comparative themes. While bringing to light important features of the formation of pantheons and the constructions of demons, chaos, and the dead, Lincoln demonstrates that historians of religions should take religious things—inspired scriptures, sacred centers, salvific rites, communities graced by divine favor—as the theories of interested humans that shape perception, community, and experiences. As he shows, it is for their terrestrial influence, and not their sacred origins, that religious phenomena merit consideration by the historian. Tackling many questions central to religious study, Gods and Demons, Priests and Scholars will be a touchstone for the history of religions in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence written by Mark Juergensmeyer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-11 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Violence has always played a part in the religious imagination, from symbols and myths to legendary battles, from colossal wars to the theater of terrorism. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence surveys intersections between religion and violence throughout history and around the world. The forty original essays in this volume include overviews of major religious traditions, showing how violence is justified within the literary and theological foundations of the tradition, how it is used symbolically and in ritual practice, and how social acts of violence and warfare have been justified by religious ideas. The essays also examine patterns and themes relating to religious violence, such as sacrifice and martyrdom, which are explored in cross-disciplinary or regional analyses; and offer major analytic approaches, from literary to social scientific studies. The contributors to this volume--innovative thinkers who are forging new directions in theory and analysis related to religion and violence--provide novel insights into this important field of studies. By mapping out the whole field of religion and violence, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence will prove an authoritative source for students and scholars for years to come.
Download or read book Torture and the Twilight of Empire written by Marnia Lazreg and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-12-13 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Torture and the Twilight of Empire looks at the intimate relationship between torture and colonial domination through a close examination of the French army's coercive tactics during the Algerian war from 1954 to 1962. By tracing the psychological, cultural, and political meanings of torture at the end of the French empire, Marnia Lazreg also sheds new light on the United States and its recourse to torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. This book is nothing less than an anatomy of torture--its methods, justifications, functions, and consequences. Drawing extensively from archives, confessions by former torturers, interviews with former soldiers, and war diaries, as well as writings by Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and others, Lazreg argues that occupying nations justify their systematic use of torture as a regrettable but necessary means of saving Western civilization from those who challenge their rule. She shows how torture was central to guerre révolutionnaire, a French theory of modern warfare that called for total war against the subject population and which informed a pacification strategy founded on brutal psychological techniques borrowed from totalitarian movements. Lazreg seeks to understand torture's impact on the Algerian population--especially women--and also on the French troops who became their torturers. She explores the roles Christianity and Islam played in rationalizing these acts, and the ways in which torture became not only routine but even acceptable. Written by a preeminent historical sociologist, Torture and the Twilight of Empire holds particularly disturbing lessons for us today as we carry out the War on Terror.
Download or read book Religious Faith Torture and Our National Soul written by David P. Gushee and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proceedings of a conference held Sept. 11-12, 2008 at Mercer University--Preface and Acknowledgements.
Download or read book Torture written by John Perry and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Torture and the Roman Inquisition written by Kenneth Gambin and published by Midsea Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By using torture, the Inquisition was simply living up to contemporary standards, in the case of the Holy Office, it was their responsibility to save the soul of the accused at all costs. Fully illustrated with lots of interesting images.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Nero written by Shadi Bartsch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-09 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively and accessible guide to the rich literary, philosophical and artistic achievements of the notorious age of Nero.
Download or read book Defending Constantine written by Peter J. Leithart and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2010-09-24 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Leithart weighs what we've been taught about Constantine and claims that in focusing on these historical mirages we have failed to notice the true significance of Constantine and Rome baptized. He reveals how beneath the surface of this contested story there lies a deeper narrative--a tectonic shift in the political theology of an empire--with far-reaching implications.
Download or read book Tortured for His Faith written by Haralan Popoff and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 1970-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Haralan Popov was the pastor of one of the largest churches in Bulgaria. The Communist government imprisoned him for 15 years.
Download or read book God and Empire written by John Dominic Crossan and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author and prominent New Testament scholar draws parallels between 1st–century Roman Empire and 21st–century United States, showing how the radical messages of Jesus and Paul can lead us to peace today Using the tools of expert biblical scholarship and a keen eye for current events, bestselling author John Dominic Crossan deftly presents the tensions exhibited in the Bible between political power and God’s justice. Through the revolutionary messages of Jesus and Paul, Crossan reveals what the Bible has to say about land and economy, violence and retribution, justice and peace, and ultimately, redemption. He examines the meaning of “kingdom of God” prophesized by Jesus, and the equality recommended to Paul by his churches, contrasting these messages of peace against the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the book of Revelations, that has been co-opted by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify the United State’s military actions in the Middle East.
Download or read book From Politics to the Pews written by Michele F. Margolis and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most substantial divides in American politics is the “God gap.” Religious voters tend to identify with and support the Republican Party, while secular voters generally support the Democratic Party. Conventional wisdom suggests that religious differences between Republicans and Democrats have produced this gap, with voters sorting themselves into the party that best represents their religious views. Michele F. Margolis offers a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom, arguing that the relationship between religion and politics is far from a one-way street that starts in the church and ends at the ballot box. Margolis contends that political identity has a profound effect on social identity, including religion. Whether a person chooses to identify as religious and the extent of their involvement in a religious community are, in part, a response to political surroundings. In today’s climate of political polarization, partisan actors also help reinforce the relationship between religion and politics, as Democratic and Republican elites stake out divergent positions on moral issues and use religious faith to varying degrees when reaching out to voters.
Download or read book Philosophers on Consciousness written by Jack Symes and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We know, more intimately than anything else, what it's like to undergo a rich world of experiences: agonizing pains, dizzying pleasures, heady rage and existential doubts. But, despite the incredible advances of physical science, it seems that we're no closer to an explanation of how this inner world of experiences comes about. No matter how detailed our description of the physical brain, perhaps we'll always be left with this same question: how and why does the brain produce consciousness? This book is a short, accessible and engaging guide to the mystery of consciousness. Featuring remastered interviews and original essays from the world's leading thinkers, Philosophers on Consciousness sheds new light on the most promising theories in philosophy and science. Beyond understanding the mind, this is a journey into personal identity, the origin of meaning, the nature of morality and the fundamental structure of reality.
Download or read book Faith Based War written by T. Walter Herbert and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American invasion of Iraq was largely governed by faith-based policy. The "shock and Awe" strategy, alongside a grossly mismanaged occupation, led to the loss of American lives. Faith-Based War presents an analysis of the imperialist Christian militarism behind the Bush Administration. America’s self-perception as God’s Chosen is examined and its catastrophic results detailed. The book offers an ethical, political and theological perspective on the perversion of Christian teaching behind the war in Iraq and the moral culpability of the American empire.
Download or read book God s Jury written by Cullen Murphy and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2012 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A narrative history of the Inquisition, and an examination of the influence it exerted on contemporary society, by the author of ARE WE ROME?
Download or read book Abolition Democracy written by Angela Y. Davis and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revelations about U.S policies and practices of torture and abuse have captured headlines ever since the breaking of the Abu Ghraib prison story in April 2004. Since then, a debate has raged regarding what is and what is not acceptable behavior for the world’s leading democracy. It is within this context that Angela Davis, one of America’s most remarkable political figures, gave a series of interviews to discuss resistance and law, institutional sexual coercion, politics and prison. Davis talks about her own incarceration, as well as her experiences as "enemy of the state," and about having been put on the FBI’s "most wanted" list. She talks about the crucial role that international activism played in her case and the case of many other political prisoners. Throughout these interviews, Davis returns to her critique of a democracy that has been compromised by its racist origins and institutions. Discussing the most recent disclosures about the disavowed "chain of command," and the formal reports by the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch denouncing U.S. violation of human rights and the laws of war in Guantánamo, Afghanistan and Iraq, Davis focuses on the underpinnings of prison regimes in the United States.
Download or read book Consuming Religion written by Kathryn Lofton and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-09-12 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction: being consumed -- Practicing commodity. Binge religion: social life in extremity ; The spirit in the cubicle: a religious history of the American office -- Revising ritual. Ritualism revived: from scientia ritus to consumer rites ; Purifying America: rites of salvation in the soap campaign -- Imagining celebrity. Sacrificing Britney: celebrity and religion in America ; The celebrification of religion in the age of infotainment -- Valuing family. Religion and the authority in American parenting ; Kardashian nation: work in America's klan ; Rethinking corporate freedom -- Corporation as sect. On the origins of corporate culture ; Do not tamper with the clues: notes on Goldman Sachs -- Conclusion: family matters
