Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American CultureSince 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
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... metaphors, operating at the level that Fredric Jameson called the “political unconscious,” can be manipulated to frame and constrain political discourse; and Brooks Kraft, the prize-winning photographer, who, in 2000, was present and ...
... metaphor, be invested with moral agency. Yet all such efforts to unify trade-related villages into a single kingdom using the religious traditions of the older communal culture were impeded by one simple, ineluctable fact: the praxis of ...
... Metaphor and War,” posted on the Internet in January 1991, he explained how the metaphors that the hawks were then using had acquired resonance by evoking two versions of an ancient narrative featuring three characters: a victim, a ...
... metaphor in Chapters 3 and 7.) During the buildup to Gulf War II, George W. 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 ...
... metaphor. The present, the zone that separates the past from the future, is visualized as a space through which time moves. As the landscape through which the road winds or the river flows, it is distinguished by the stable objects ...
Contents
Myths of Curses Myths of Blessings | |
Narratives of the Night | |
Abduction Narratives | |
Homeland Nostalgia and Holy | |
Secular Modernism Biblical Style | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American Culture Christopher Collins Limited preview - 2010 |
Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American Culture Christopher Collins Limited preview - 2015 |
Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American Culture Christopher Collins No preview available - 2013 |