It was not atheists, agnostics, or secular humanists who flew planes into the World Trade Center on 9/11, but persons of fervent religious faith and absolute belief. Since its modern beginning, the people of Israel have engaged in vigorous debate among both religious and secular groups about the needs for self-defense and the dangers of becoming a militarist state. When Christians engaged in extremely violent crusades to rid the ‘Holy Land” of Islamic “unbelievers,” it was amid cries of “Deus lo Volt”—God wills it. Both Catholic and Protestant “inquisitions” engaged in torture for the “good” and “salvation” of the victim and the realm. This course searches for reasons why many, if not most religions, especially in the West, have been so violent in speech and action throughout their traditions and amid the deepest levels of their experience and claims. We will examine the violence of claims of absolute truth and the ritualization of that violence in anthropologies of sacrifice, as well as various “texts of terror,” and theologies of salvation. We will also examine possibilities of repentance and redemption within these traditions, and in religion itself. The course will be in seminar format.
TEXTS AND OUTLINE
Read basic texts before class (but see note on The Binding of Isaac: A Religious Model of Disobedience). Other articles and chapters will be assigned in course. Written assignment(s) to be announced. Feel free to contact me for further information or discussion (jmonti@sewanee.edu; & jmonti 2000@aol.com).
The Modern Conditions of “Holy Terror:”
The Culture and Logic of Religious Violence
Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence,
Third Edition. The University of California Press, 2003. (Paperback, 336 pages)
ISBN-10: 0520240111
Philosophies and Theologies of Evil
Paul Ricoeur: Evil: A Challenge to Philosophy and Theology. Continuum, 2007.
(Paperback, 72 pages) ISBN-10: 0826494765
Anthropologies of Ritual and Sacrifice
James J. Williams, ed., The Girard Reader. Crossroad/Herder, 1997. (Paperback, 310 pages)
ISBN-10: 0824516346
Ernest Becker, Escape from Evil. Free Press, 1985. (Paperback, 188 pages) ISBN-10: 0029024501
The Binding (Akedah) of Isaac
Shalom Spiegel, The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to
Offer Isaac As a Sacrifice: The Akedah. Jewish Lights Publishing, September 1993.
(Paperback, 208 pages) ISBN-10: 187904529X
Omri Boehm, The Binding of Isaac: A Religious Model of Disobedience. T&T Clark, 2007. (Hardback, 145 pages) ISBN-10: 0567026132 [Note: This is a very expensive book and relatively short. If you cannot secure it from a library, I recommend that you read it in course after you arrive—on reserve in The School of Theology library.]
Violence and Monotheism
Regina M. Schwartz, The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism. University
Of Chicago Press, 1998. (Paperback, 228 pages) ISBN-10: 0226742008
Christian Theologies of Atonement
J. Denny Weaver, The Nonviolent Atonement. Eerdmans, 2001. (Paperback, 246 pages)
ISBN-10: 0802849083
Changing the Subjects
Wendy Farley, The Wounding and Healing of Desire: Weaving Heaven and Earth.
Westminster/John Knox Press, 2005. (Paperback, 208 pages) ISBN-10: 066422976X
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, Divinity and Diversity: A Christian Affirmation of Religious Pluralism. Abingdon Press, 2003. (Paperback, 125 pages) ISBN-10: 0687021944
NOTE: Classes will meet afternoons for three weeks, Thursday, June 26 - Wednesday, July 16, 1:15 P.M. – 3:15 P.M. in Room 234. Registration for the course is Wednesday, June 25, Room 212.
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