Christian Mentality: The Entanglements of Power, Violence and Fear (Religion in Culture) - Softcover

Mack, Burton L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844657485 ISBN 13: 9781844657483

Publisher: Routledge, 2011

Synopsis

Christian mentality is a matter of some consequence for the way we think about our communities, others, and the nation. The focus of this book is on the social issues currently under discussion in the United States, a discussion that reveals an uncertainty about the reasons that have been taken for granted in forming policies and practices as a nation. The thesis of the book is that the narrative grammar of the Christian myth is entangled with the underlying reasons for these policies and practices, reasons that are rooted in American self-understanding as an exceptional nation of manifest destiny. The correlations between this self-understanding and the social grammar of the Christian myth is the challenge that confronts the efforts now underway to reimagine and restructure a society that is not a Christian nation, but polycultural people seeking to clarify their vision of a social democracy.

About this title

About the Author:

Burton L. Mack, now retired, was formerly John Wesley Professor in Early Christianity at the Claremont School of Theology and Graduate University in California. He is the author of numerous publications on Hellenistic Judaism, ritual theory, Classical rhetoric and Christian origins from the viewpoint of cultural anthropology and the history of religions.

Review:

"A brilliant tour de force bringing the author's work in analyzing the Christian Myth into the twenty-first century. The work sheds new light on what shapes and drives the political discourse in the United States by tracing it back to the "Christian Mentality" that has been formed by the Christian story." - Randall Reed, Appalachian State University "It is difficult to demonstrate the pervasive influence of a mentality from within a culture, especially when it persists as a mythic grammar and social logic from a medieval world radically different from our own, but that is precisely the remarkable achievement of this book." - Merrill P. Miller, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1844657485
• ISBN 13: 9781844657483
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 198